{"id":353861,"date":"2026-07-27T17:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T17:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/353861\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T17:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T17:10:08","slug":"memorial-and-aetna-renew-deal-for-south-florida-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/353861\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorial and Aetna renew deal for South Florida healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/stethoscope.jpeg\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"674\" title=\"Memorial Healthcare System in Broward County renewed its agreement with health insurer Aetna.\" alt=\"Memorial Healthcare System in Broward County renewed its agreement with health insurer Aetna.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Memorial Healthcare System in Broward County renewed its agreement with health insurer Aetna.<\/p>\n<p>                Archive<\/p>\n<p>Thousands of South Floridians who are insured through Aetna will be able to continue visiting their Memorial Healthcare System doctors for in-network care as part of a recently renewed deal between the health system and the insurer.<\/p>\n<p>The two-year agreement keeps Memorial in-network with CVS Health-owned Aetna\u2019s commercial and Medicare Advantage plans. Memorial is also still in-network for Medicaid patients who have plans through Aetna\u2019s Better Health of Florida. As a reminder, Aetna no longer offers <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/advisor\/health-insurance\/aetna-exit-aca-2026-impact\/\">plans through the Affordable Care Act marketplace<\/a>, also known as Obamacare.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor many patients and families, the relationship they build with their physician and care team is based on trust and continuity over time,\u201d Irfan Mirza, the health system\u2019s chief financial officer, said in a statement. \u201cThis renewed agreement helps ensure Aetna members can continue receiving care from the physicians, care teams and services they know and trust across Memorial Healthcare System.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Memorial, which primarily serves southern Broward, is one of Broward County\u2019s public health systems. Aetna is one of the largest insurers in the state and covers millions of people, including over <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/news\/local\/community\/miami-dade\/article311688712.html\">30,000 county employees in Miami-Dade County<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The renewed deal went into effect immediately, which means thousands of Aetna members won\u2019t notice any lapses in their ability to get in-network primary and specialty care across Memorial\u2019s hospitals, nursing home and urgent care centers, including at the Memorial Cancer Institute in Pembroke Pines and Memorial Regional Hospital and Joe DiMaggio Children\u2019s Hospital in Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p>Memorial told the Herald it served about 42,000 patients with Aetna plans in the 2026 fiscal year, which began in May 2025 and ended in April 2026.<\/p>\n<p>For Amelia Lee, Aetna\u2019s vice president of network for the Southeast, the renewed deal is one that will help members \u201cmaintain affordable access\u201d to Memorial doctors and facilities and is an example of Aetna\u2019s commitment to ensuring patients can access \u201cthe highest levels of care and support\u201d close to home.<\/p>\n<p>Hospitals and health insurers undergo negotiations all the time, a process that usually takes months. Aetna is just one of the many <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mhs.net\/patients-and-visitors\/insurance\">health insurance companies<\/a> Memorial has a deal with. And, in case you\u2019re wondering, Memorial and its sister Broward Health, the public health system that primarily serves northern Broward, are <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/news\/health-care\/article315553145.html\">still in talks with Florida Blue<\/a>, one of the largest health insurers in the state, to try and make a deal that would bring the hospital systems back in-network.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/news\/health-care\/article316592533.html\">READ NEXT: People with this Medicare plan could soon go out-of-network at UHealth hospitals<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/profile\/231926248\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785172208_185_Michelle Marchante new profile photo.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" alt=\"Profile Image of Michelle Marchante\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <a class=\"author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/profile\/231926248\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michelle Marchante<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    Miami Herald<\/p>\n<p>            Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health\u2019s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald\u2019s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media &amp; Journalism fellow.\u00a0<br \/>\n            <a href=\"https:\/\/mycheckout.miamiherald.com\/subscribe?ofrgp_id=428&amp;g2i_or_o=Event&amp;g2i_or_p=Reporter&amp;cid=news_cta_1-1mo-15.99-on-article_202311\" style=\"color: #5169B8; text-transform: none;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Support my work with a digital subscription<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Memorial Healthcare System in Broward County renewed its agreement with health insurer Aetna. Archive Thousands of South Floridians&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-353861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}