The Hospital: Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town

by Brian Alexander

That strategy used ProMedica’s market power. First, it blackballed St. Luke’s from its for-profit insurance business, Paramount. Paramount was one of the largest insurers in the region, so being in-network with Paramount could make or break a medical practice or a hospital. Before 2001, St. Luke’s was part of the Paramount network, but then, at the behest of ProMedica, Paramount refused to give St. Luke’s a contract, costing St. Luke’s about three hundred admissions per year, and forcing the leadership at St. Luke’s to conclude that Paramount would “only let us back in when we give them [ProMedica] the keys.”