On Tuesday, Community Health System and Blue Shield announced they had reached an agreement for a new multi-year contract after a nearly five month lapse in contract. The agreement, effective immediately, allow CHS facilities and affiliated providers to rejoin Blue Shield’s network of participating medical providers.
CHS is the parent organization that owns Community Medical Center facilities including downtown Fresno’s Community Regional Medical Center, the region’s only Level 1 Trauma Center, Clovis Community Medical Center and Fresno Heart & Surgical Hospital.
Thousands had lost in-network access to their care at Community Health System after the two groups failed to agree on terms of a new contract by a January 31 deadline. However, the agreement is retroactive to February 1, 2026, meaning that claims for services received during the out-of-network period will be processed (or reprocessed) as in-network for Blue Shield members.
Source: The Fresno Bee