{"id":425475,"date":"2026-10-12T12:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T12:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/425475\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T12:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T12:04:09","slug":"wink-news-to-host-medicare-help-center-as-50000-lee-health-patients-face-insurance-changes-investigations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/425475\/","title":{"rendered":"WINK News to host Medicare Help Center as 50,000 Lee Health patients face insurance changes | Investigations"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 50,000 Lee Health patients are on alert as the hospital system ends its contract with United Healthcare at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

WINK Investigates<\/a> is hosting a special event to help answer pressing questions from the community. The event, called \u201cCoverage in Question,\u201d will take place on Monday, Oct. 12.<\/p>\n

During the special live segment, WINK News will host a Medicare Help Center from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Trained counselors with SHINE \u2014 Serving Health Insurance Needs of Elders \u2014 will be answering calls.<\/p>\n

The Medicare Help Center will provide free, unbiased answers from experts just before open enrollment begins for Medicare on Oct. 15.<\/p>\n

Lee Health patients are not the only ones who need answers. Naples Comprehensive Health will also stop accepting Cigna and WellCare Medicare Advantage plans on Jan. 1.<\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0Lee Health ending contracts with UnitedHealthcare starting in 2027<\/a><\/p>\n

Thousands of residents will be out-of-network come the new year.<\/p>\n

Southwest Florida is not alone in this ongoing dispute.<\/p>\n

Through investigations, WINK News discovered there are nearly three dozen metro areas across the country that are seeing similar disputes between a major healthcare provider and a leading insurance carrier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 50,000 Lee Health patients are on alert as the hospital system ends its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,897,571,166948,12231,1521,167400,38979,58708],"class_list":["post-425475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-fort-myers","tag-health","tag-insurance-changes","tag-medicare","tag-southwest-florida","tag-united-healthcare","tag-wink","tag-wink-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425475","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=425475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}