To ensure that hospital and specialty care are available to patients who need such services, Wexford Health maintains an internal Provider Network Development Department that negotiates and manages contracts with appropriate community-based providers.  This enables us to effectively provide care for patients who require services that fall outside the scope of care that can be performed on-site at a correctional facility.

Our provider network development team uses a variety of resources (site-level suggestions, recommendations from current participating network physicians, Internet research, etc.) to identify providers who would be a good match for the targeted facility's needs, both geographically and clinically.  Team members then proactively reach out to these providers to determine their interest in providing services to correctional patients.

To maintain the Preferred Provider Network (PPN) that we built for each contract, our provider network team reaches out to each client agency on an ongoing basis and sends a formal questionnaire twice per year to ensure the site has no issues with its available selection of hospitals, specialists, and ancillary service providers.  The Provider Network Development Department also regularly reviews claims and coordinates with Wexford Health’s UM team for ongoing network development.  If we determine that our existing network does not include a required type of clinician, we implement our provider network development process.