A major south Alabama health care system warns that patients insured through UnitedHealthcare could be a month away from losing in-network coverage.<\/p>\n
USA Health, a multi-hospital system affiliated with the University of South Alabama, said Wednesday that contract negotiations between USA Health Providence Hospital and UnitedHealthcare are approaching a Nov. 14 deadline. <\/p>\n
The warning does not apply to USA Health University Hospital and USA Health Children\u2019s & Women\u2019s Hospital. Providence Hospital in west Mobile originally was a Catholic institution that later was part of the Ascension healthcare network. USA Health took over Providence in October 2023.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cFor many months, USA Health has worked to reach a fair agreement with UnitedHealthcare so that patients can continue accessing care without disruption,\u201d said the USA Health statement. \u201cUnfortunately, despite USA Health\u2019s best efforts, an agreement has not been reached.<\/p>\n \u201cPatients with UnitedHealthcare insurance will continue to have in-network coverage for Providence Hospital services through Nov. 14,\u201d continued the statement. \u201cIf an agreement is not reached, UnitedHealthcare members who seek care at Providence Hospital will be responsible for paying out-of-network costs starting Nov. 15.\u201d The statement said this would apply to both employer-sponsored commercial plans and Medicare Advantage plans.<\/p>\n A request for comment from UnitedHealthcare was pending as this story was published. <\/p>\n USA Health\u2019s statement suggested that potentially affected patients could use a current open enrollment period to change their coverage; changes would take effect Jan. 1, it said.<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal has always been to remain in network and for our patients to be able to see the providers they know and trust at USA Health Providence Hospital without interruption,\u201d said Natalie Fox, DNP, PNP-BC, interim CEO of USA Health. \u201cUnfortunately, UnitedHealthcare\u2019s approach to contract negotiations has so far made this effort unsuccessful, as it has in other markets. We are very saddened by the uncertainty this creates for our patients and UnitedHealthcare customers.\u201d<\/p>\n In October 2024, Huntsville Hospital Health System announced that it had sent a notice of termination<\/a> to the insurer after \u201cseveral months of disappointing negotiations;\u201d a month later, just before the termination actually took effect, a new agreement was announced<\/a>. Birmingham-based UAB Health System had a similar dispute<\/a> in June but struck a tentative deal<\/a> as the deadline loomed at the end of July and announced a new multi-year agreement in August.<\/a> Mobile-based Infirmary Health System previously went through a similar process in summer 2024.<\/p>\n USA Health directed patrons affected by the potential change to an information page at www.usahealthsystem.com\/united<\/a>. <\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A major south Alabama health care system warns that patients insured through UnitedHealthcare could be a month away…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":["post-76694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}