Residents Host Town Hall Amid Anthem MU Health Care Negotiations

COLUMBIA — On Saturday, Missouri Jobs with Justice joined LiUNA Local 955 for a town hall to raise awareness of the over 90,000 mid-Missourians who lost access to their healthcare providers.

The contract ended on April 1st.

While dealing with a recent cancer diagnosis. LiUNA Local 955’s vice president, Michael Anderson, similar to other patients was granted a 90-day continuance of care grace period but still has concerns about what will happen next.

Anderson said that the negotiations have "a lot of people concerned" adding that the talks have been going on for eight months now.

"They've been in talks for eight months, and nobody wants to give on either side. MU Health seems like they're wanting to help a little more than Anthem. They've reached out to me, personally, on three different occasions," said Anderson.

Aside from providing the opportunity for patients to speak, the town hall included a panel of representatives from MU Healthcare.

Stephanie Vojicic, a representative for Anthem, was invited to the event but did not show up.

Physicians Ed Weisbart and David Mehr as well as MU Healthcare spokesperson Marty McCormick were present.

Mehr spoke on behalf of his colleagues stating that physicians are doing what they can to ease the effects of the issue.

"Physicians are trying to do what they can. They're trying to help people find other care, but it's difficult. There's a shortage of primary care physicians here and a lot of the specialty care that people need, they would have to travel to St. Louis or Kansas City to get," said Mehr.

Meher also noted that a major complication faced by physicians during this time is not only managing referrals but also finding solutions for patients' specialty care medications that are not included in the continuance of care.