NJ’s Bayonne Medical Center, Horizon reach deal but new concerns arise

After a very bitter and public feud, the Bayonne Medical Center and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey announced an agreement last month that made the hospital in-network for subscribers. The dispute cast a large shadow on a bid by the ownership group of Bayonne Medical Center to purchase Hoboken University Medical Center. Some feared that customers of the state's largest insurer -- Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey -- would be shut out of the the Hoboken facility. The parties said last month's agreement would extend to Hoboken and quelled some of those fears, but the fine print of the agreement has raised new concerns. Under the agreement, Bayonne Medical Center will not accept Horizon's NJ Health, an insurance plan available to the neediest residents under Medicaid, according to the insurer.