Established in 1993 as separate entities under the names St. Elizabeth PHO and St. Mary PHO, the CHRISTUS Southeast Texas PHO is a non-profit “joint-venture” organization composed of individual physicians and the CHRISTUS Health Southeast Texas facilities located in the Southeast Texas market. Those facilities include CHRISTUS Hospital- St. Elizabeth in Beaumont, CHRISTUS Hospital- St. Mary in Port Arthur, and CHRISTUS Jasper Memorial Hospital in Jasper.

The CHRISTUS Southeast Texas PHO is locally owned and governed by Boards of Directors comprised of physicians elected from the general membership as well as appointed hospital representatives. Our physicians and hospitals represent a comprehensive network of medical specialties and health care services located throughout Jefferson, Orange, Hardin, Tyler, Jasper, Newton, and Chambers Counties.

As a service organization to our members, the CHRISTUS Southeast Texas PHO works closely with insurance companies, HMOs, PPOs, and third-party payors providing effective and efficient managed care contracting opportunities. In addition to serving as a messenger on third-party contracts, we provide several other benefits to member physicians. Through our centralized credentialing services that meet NCQA guidelines, we are able to maintain delegated credentialing status with all of our managed care contracts. This means that member physicians do not have to complete numerous plan-specific applications or re-credentialing forms as the PHO does this for all of our contracted plans. We also provide physician/payor relations services whereas our staff acts as a liaison for assistance in resolving issues ranging from physician information updates to claims appeals. Finally, in addition to informal meetings, we offer formal educational programs to hospitals, physicians, and their support staff allowing physicians to earn CME credits for attendance. Recent topics have ranged from electronic health records to HIPAA to OSHA compliance.

In our ever-changing health care environment, the CHRISTUS Southeast Texas PHO is an excellent resource to assist the member physicians and hospitals in the complexities of health care as a business. Please contact our office at: (409) 899-7791 if you have any questions.