A contract between Asheville's biggest hospital and the region's largest healthcare provider is severed after it was not renewed.
Officials with Mission Hospital and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina were unable to come to an agreement on payments, after months of stalled negotiations, allowing their ongoing partnership to end as of 11:59 last night.
The change means that up to 50-thousand statewide Blue Cross Blue Shield customers who seek treatment at Mission will now be out-of-network, and will have to pay higher costs for care.