Mississippi’s largest health insurance provider is finally covering patients in-network at the state’s largest medical complex again after the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi announced an agreement.

Since last spring, thousands of non-emergency patients have not been able to get affordable care at UMMC due to an ongoing dispute with BCBS.

“Effective December 15, 2022, all UMMC facilities, physicians and other individual Professional Providers are fully participating Network Providers for all Blue Cross commercial health plans, including the Federal Employee Plan and Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans from other states,” says Friday’s joint statement. “Blue Cross and UMMC remain focused on their missions of serving Mississippians’ health care needs.”

The statement says that the “terms of the contract are confidential.”

Negotiations previously stalled over the summer as BCBS and UMMC disagreed over reimbursement rates.

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Award-winning News Editor Ashton Pittman, a native of the South Mississippi Pine Belt, studied journalism and political science at the University of Southern Mississippi. Previously the state reporter at the Jackson Free Press, he drove national headlines and conversations with award-winning reporting about segregation academies. He has won numerous awards, including Outstanding New Journalist in the South, for his work covering immigration raids, abortion battles and even former Gov. Phil Bryant’s unusual work with “The Bad Boys of Brexit" at the Jackson Free Press. In 2021, as a Mississippi Free Press reporter, he was named the Diamond Journalist of the Year for seven southern U.S. states in the Society of Professional Journalists Diamond Awards. A trained photojournalist, Ashton lives in South Mississippi with his husband, William, and their two pit bulls, Dorothy and Dru.