An Enterprise Staff Report

On Friday, officials with ARH Healthcare and Coventry Cares announced an agreement had been reached. Patients at ARH Healthcare will remain in the Coventry insurance network through June 30, while negotiations continue. Sen. Brandon Smith expressed relief that an agreement has been reached, but remains concerned about the future health care options for the people affected.

“While I applaud the efforts of ARH and Coventry, I remain cautious about the long-term implementation of Medicaid managed care and its impact on the people of this region,” said Smith. “For example, only one of the other Medicaid managed care companies has a service contract in place with the hospital and the other, without a contract, is being sued by the hospital. What will happen to people who need health care? Will we have to deal with the same problem with the remaining company? I want to know the answer to these questions before I and other advocates back down.”

Past Harlan County Chamber of Commerce President Dan Mosley said, “Thanks to Sen. Brandon Smith’s call to action, the Harlan County Chamber of Commerce was prepared to go to battle for the people of Appalachia to see that our citizens health care was put before anything else. We’re all very pleased that this battle has been a victorious one. We’ll continue to work with Sen. Smith to monitor the situation to see that a long-term solution is reached.”

In a Harlan County Chamber of Commerce press release, the March on Frankfort Call to Arms set for Monday has been cancelled.

“We would like to thank our community for their show of support and commitment as we worked to prevent loss of jobs and access to health care in Harlan County,” said Jennifer Lee. “We appreciate you standing by the Harlan County Chamber of Commerce in this matter.”