United Healthcare and UF Health failed to come to terms on a new contract agreement on Sunday.
As of Sept. 1, UF Health will no longer be an in-network provider with United Healthcare.
In a UF Health press release sent Monday, UF Health stated, “Despite months of earnestly negotiating in good faith for fair and appropriate rates for hospitals, physicians, and other providers, as of September 1, United Healthcare is excluding UF Health hospitals and physician groups in Gainesville, Jacksonville, and St. Johns from its network. The action prevents thousands of patients with United Healthcare commercial and Medicaid Managed Care plans from accessing compassionate, leading-edge care at UF Health locations in all three markets and Medicare Advantage patients in the St. Augustine area.”
United Healthcare released a statement on its website that UF Health allowed the contract to expire and stated, “The University of Florida Health (UF Health) is now out of network for people enrolled in the following plans, as of Sept. 1, 2024:
- Employer-sponsored commercial plans, including UMR
- The UF Student Health Insurance Plan through Student Resources
- Medicaid plans
UF Health’s psychiatric hospital and UF Health Central Florida are on a separate contract and are not impacted by our negotiation. They continue to remain in our network.”
UF Health’s Dr. Marvin Dewar, the executive officer of UF Health Physicians, said he knows it will affect the patients who come to UF for their healthcare.
“We are sensitive to the challenges this poses for our patients and despite the outcome we continue to earnestly work with United Healthcare toward a solution. Our commitment to placing patients at the heart of our efforts is unwavering, and we have put processes in place to minimize any disruption in care to the extent we can, but unfortunately United Healthcare has given us no other choice,” said Dewar in the press release. “We even invited United leadership to meet with us on site to finalize the agreement but they declined. We continued to try to reach an agreement right up to the deadline but United insisted upon linking other products to the negotiations and abruptly imposing new conditions and changing language to items that had already been agreed upon. As a physician, my job is to care for my patients, and we did our best to avoid this situation.”
United Healthcare, in its release, said it delivered a contract to UF Health on Aug. 31 to finalize the terms that UF Health indicated it would accept for the Medicaid plan, but UF Health did not respond.
“UF Health indicated on the morning of Aug. 31 a willingness to continue participation in our Medicaid network. We delivered a contract that provided the terms they sought. UF Health never responded, disrupting access to care for approximately 30,000 people enrolled in our Medicaid plan who rely on UF Health for their health care needs,” UH posted on its website.
United Healthcare’s release stated UF Health’s last proposal was sent to it on Aug. 29 and included demands for a 30% price hike over two years which included a 20% rate increase in the first year of the contract. United Healthcare delivered its counteroffer on Aug. 30 that included the rate increases on top of its original proposal that UF Health did not respond to, allowing the contract to expire.
In UF Health’s release sent Monday, UF said, it “has been striving to fulfill its mission of caring for patients and the communities it serves while managing continual double-digit increases in labor, supply, and other expenses. However, United offered UF Health commercial rates that are below general inflation and far below rising annual costs. United was paying UF Health considerably less than market rates, and those numbers have been declining throughout the past several years. To make matters worse, they offered no increase to UF Health’s physician practices for the coming 12 months.”
UF Health said United refused to honor its commitment to pay rates previously agreed to.
“As the state’s leading academic health system that researches leading-edge treatments, educates future generations of clinicians, and treats a disproportionate number of underserved patients, we deserve to be paid fairly and competitively for the care we provide to patients and the services we offer,” Dewar said. “Reasonable compensation is necessary for us to sustain our mission.”
UF Health said that it is making arrangements to continue to care for patients with urgent care needs, including nonelective surgeries, emergency medicine, pregnancies and cancer care. UF students who use a United Healthcare plan though UF’s student health insurance program can also receive care at all UF Health facilities and the UF Student Health Care Center with no adverse impacts.
“We are committed to doing our part to reach an agreement that would prevent disruption to all our patients’ continued access to UF Health physicians and facilities for non-emergency services and care,” Dewar said. “We are continuing to negotiate in good faith but we are waiting for the health plan to respond with a fair and sustainable offer to make that happen. Again, this includes streamlining their claims process and reducing administrative demands.”
UF Health will take questions from patients at 855-834-7337 or 352-265-8585. For a set of frequently asked questions and a list of health plans accepted by UF Health in Gainesville and Jacksonville visit https://UFHealth.org/healthplans or for FAQs and health plans accepted at UF St. Johns visit https://StJohns.UFHealth.org/UHC.