Updated: UF Health and United Healthcare fail to come to an agreement
Updated on September 3 with statement from United Healthcare.
Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – According to a press release from UF Health, as of September 1, UF Health hospitals and physician groups in Gainesville (among other locations) will not be part of United Healthcare’s network. Except for patients seeking care with UF Health St. Johns, Medicare Advantage patients are not affected.
“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 Marvin Dewar, M.D., J.D., chief executive officer of UF Health Physicians. “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.”
UF Health says that United Healthcare offered commercial rates that are below general inflation and far below rising annual costs, United Healthcare was paying UF Health considerably less than market rates, and those numbers have been declining throughout the past several years. United Healthcare also offered no increase to UF Health’s physician practices for the coming 12 months, according to the press release.
“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.”
United Healthcare released the following statement: “Despite our repeated efforts to compromise and find a solution, UF Health walked away from our negotiation and allowed our agreement to expire as of Sept. 1. We delivered a contract on Aug. 31 to finalize the terms UF Health had indicated they’d accept for our Medicaid plan, only for the health system to never respond and unnecessarily disrupt access to care for Floridians. We also delivered a proposal to UF Health on Aug. 30 that included significant compromises for our employer-sponsored commercial plans. The health system never countered. UF Health’s last proposal included a 30% price hike over two years and a more than 20% rate increase in one year, which is not affordable for consumers or employers. While we remain committed to continued discussions, our focus now is ensuring Florida families have access to the care they need through continuity of care or a smooth transition to another provider, as appropriate.”
University of Florida students who have a United Healthcare plan through the university’s student health insurance program will be able to continue to receive care at the UF Student Health Care Center and at all UF Health facilities just as they always have, with no adverse impacts.
For students who have United Healthcare coverage through their parents’ insurance, instead of through the university’s student health insurance program, UF and UF Health will ensure they will continue to be able to receive service at the Student Health Care Center location just as they always have, with no changes in co-pays or deductibles. Unfortunately, services at other UF Health locations are now out of network for this subgroup.
Patients can contact UF Health with questions at 1-855-834-7337 or 352-265-8585. For a set of frequently asked questions and a list of health plans accepted by UF Health in Gainesville, visit https://UFHealth.org/healthplans.
United Healthcare patients are encouraged to talk to their benefits managers or brokers or call United. Most insurance companies list their patient customer service numbers on membership identification cards. Some customer service numbers United Healthcare lists on their website include:
- Commercial: 1-866-801-4409
- Medicaid Managed Care: 1-888-716-8787
- Medicare Advantage: 1-855-893-5505
Greed. Doubtful that any of these doctors will be going hungry due to this contract.
Who are you to decide what they should be making? Typical liberal, you want everything equal or free and paid for off of the backs of those who work.
A lot of folks losing their coverage work every day. How is it that In one of the most advanced economies in the world, we have people without health insurance who can’t afford to see a doctor?
Andrew Witty, CEO of UnitedHealth, was paid $23.5 million in 2023- the highest paid ceo of all health insurance companies. All that for a company that makes nothing tangible and provides no direct service to their customers- just a leach on our healthcare system. What would happen if the State of Florida decided that insurance companies could no longer negotiate rates w hospitals? We would bring back the patient’s ability to price shop and bring healthcare costs down, and maybe even become the healthcare mecca of the world. The first state that can legislate against provider side insurance negotiations will win. This is the best way out of our healthcare cost crises. Cut off the leach. https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payers/unitedhealth-ceo-andrew-witty-was-2023s-highest-paid-payer-ceo-heres-what-his-peers-earned#:~:text=UnitedHealth%20Group%20CEO%20Andrew%20Witty%20has%20climbed%20to%20the%20top,includes%20a%20%241.5%20million%20salary.
There should be two parallel systems in America. Govt insurance should not subsidize private, patented healthcare, and Private insurance should not subsidize public healthcare. There’s too much corruption that way.
Private patented medicine should only be done in private healthcare. Once the patents expire, and generics replace the drugs, then the Public healthcare can use them in their locations.
Taxpayers who want Public healthcare would pay that premium. Others (employees in group plans) would pay premiums for the “advantage” of being early adopters using patented, private healthcare and Rx sooner — unless the employer allows Public use for the employee-taxpayers.
This keeps politicians out of the insurance game, too. Less politics, the better, right?
Yes, previously the private sector would take the risks of research and development and the government health care would provide a stable and proven level of care.
Taxpayers were not on the hook for costly trials and new medical treatment protocols. Imagine the competition this creates within the government funded health care environments to work in the bleeding edge tech areas so that staff could increase their salaries and job hop.
This destroys the stable health care system, including hospitals in rural areas that cannot compete with the University “systems”. This creates a path to a single health system.
There are 2 different systems, not exactly parallel though. I take that back, there can be parallel lines with one being above the other.
There’s the haves and the have nots. The leaders in government, elitists(?), and the followers. If Congressional leaders were really interested in having equal healthcare, they would avail all Americans access to the same level of care, at the same costs, they have access to.
That is not possible. They have a fully paid policy some what above a ‘platinum’ policy that only the very wealthy can afford. Better that the government provide them with whatever they provide the public.
A 3rd parallel (and one I think is the only sustainable method) is to replace employer and public group insurance with family-based networks. Including extended relatives, paying varied individual or family premiums according to their wealth — into the same pool with poor kin. BUT the wealthier have more say in what care level the others get (who can still vote) — considering the bad habits, eating and exercise, hereditary diseases and offspring potential, within each extended family health network.
This would force everybody to take better care of each other in their families, in a self-improvement scheme. Since they’d be directly liable for bad health outcome costs.
Those costs may vary as well, according to a family wealth calculation. Wealthier families may want leading edge patented tech. While poorer families would use generics and public domain tech that was good enough 10+ years ago.
I worked in the insurance industry for 40 years, and, I don’t know, really, what the correct answer to the problems the industry has, would be. As bad as I hate to think these kind of thoughts, it might word better if you took the CAPITALISM FACTOR, out of the PREMIUMS, (COST), but, I am not eve sure of that, as you have so much organized crime in the leadership and ownership of the Companies, it is the same with all CASULTY INS.
Take insurance out of it completely. Pay as you go. Ok, insurance for true emergencies, over $15,000. Market place would take care of itself…. Offer cash at any office and you will get a discount…
What? That pillar of equity and fairness, UF, wasn’t happy that United Healthcare wasn’t willing to pay below annual costs? Sounds like their commitment isn’t to their patients as much as to their pocketbooks.
Why is that? People want to throw all the blame on the insurance companies and pharmaceutical industries; they may want to look at those bastions of liberalism that charge exorbitant fees to their students, who in turn cry about those same fees and tuition costs, who then find a “belief” in the very capitalism many denounce in favor of gaining the riches that generally come with being in the medical profession.
There’s cause and effect and there’s hypocrisy; sometimes one is related to another.
Tuition: UF instate $6,381 out of state $28,659
U Miami $57,941
UF ranks ahead of UM as an academic institution.
Is there a point there? UM is private, UF public, but you knew that already.
Seeing as how tuition for approximately 15k out of state students is ~$420,000,000 vs ~$287,000,000 for 45k students, it would appear it supports the economics of having as many out of state students as possible.
For this week at least, UM is a better football team, but many of us know that as well. Here’s hoping the “Boys” can lick their wounds and recover. It’s a long season.
Yeah, if you’re too dense to understand my “point” on your own, here it is:
In reference specifically to UF, you said “those bastions of liberalism that charge exorbitant fees to their students….” Clearly UF does not charge exorbitant fees to it’s students when compared to actual colleges in the real world. I can’t speak of course for what they charge in your imaginary world.
So, in the real world – there’s that caveat – you don’t know wtf you’re talking about.
That was my point.
Make sure you use the comment in it’s entirety. If you do, you’ll get the point.
If you need to take a course in reading comprehension, it’s available for a much lower price since you’re a Florida resident.
Just don’t whine about the tuition. There’s plenty of people who already want the government to pay for that.
That’s the point.
Your premise – UF charges exorbitant tuition fees – is BS and therefore, so is your conclusion.
Let me know if you need more help.
If it’s so affordable, why do the whiney students complain about the tuition and feel the government should pay/forgive their loans? Those loans they signed up for. Do they have a problem with reading comprehension too? Maybe they just weren’t raised to be responsible? Why don’t they get on their soapboxes and protest those who have a direct impact on the costs of attending college?
The conclusion is those bastions of liberalism that promote equality and equity, that charge the same fees students complain about having to repay, are primarily responsible for the costs of going to college. Whether those costs are facilities or faculty, they all contribute to the costs.
Appears you’ve got a difficult time with reality.
UFHealth is a not for profit hospital … UF is a university. Some of the Doctors teach at the university but not all the teachers work at the hospital. Does that make sense now?
“Not for profit”.?.Funny how they can purchase large physician practices and buildings in flagler,st.johns ,lake county to name a few.Please rethink.
For those who just lost their UF doctors and care,get your Healthcare in their emergency rooms where they are required by law to treat you.What,no money? Doesn’t stop them from treating illegals.