announcement on the LVHN website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n“This outcome was not our choice and does not reflect our commitment to providing accessible, high\u2011quality care for the communities we serve,” Jefferson-LVHN officials said in a statement on April 17.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jefferson-LVHN officials say that they made repeated “good\u2011faith efforts” to reach an agreement that reflects prior contractual expectations and the real costs of delivering care in the Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n
“UnitedHealthcare has declined to do so, creating uncertainty for patients and families,” the statement claimed. “LVHN remains in network with nearly all other major insurers in the region and is prepared to resume discussions with UnitedHealthcare at any time to reach a fair and sustainable agreement that keeps patients connected to their care.”<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for UnitedHealthcare claims that LVHN will not counter the proposal that was made, choosing instead to maintain its demands for a more than 20% price hike in the first year of the contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“This would make the health system significantly more expensive than the average cost of all other hospitals in eastern Pennsylvania while significantly driving up costs for people and local companies,” the UnitedHealthcare spokesperson said. “While we remain committed to continued discussions with LVHN, our focus at this time is providing people access to the care they need through either continuity of care or a smooth transition to another provider, as appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UHC spokesperson said that the health insurance giant had recently reached a multi-year agreement with LVHN competitor St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network, and all its members would be able to receive in-network care with St. Luke\u2019s hospitals and physicians.<\/p>\n
Patients may still have options including emergency coverage, Continuity of Care for active treatment, out-of-network benefits, or transferring care to an in-network provider such as Jefferson Health, according to Jefferson-LVHN officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Veterans covered through the UnitedHealthcare VA Community Care Network (VA CCN) may continue receiving care with their LVHN providers without interruption, according to the announcement on the LVHN website. This includes continued access even if the LVHN commercial contract with UnitedHealthcare ends on April 26.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This negotiation only impacts LVHN\u2019s hospitals, facilities and its physicians, according to a UnitedHealthcare spokesperson. Network access to Jefferson Health\u2019s hospitals, facilities and its physicians is not impacted for people enrolled in UnitedHealthcare employer-sponsored commercial plans, Medicare Advantage plans or Medicaid plans.<\/p>\n
Approximately 70,000 LVHN patients have United Healthcare insurance, 69 News reported in October 2025<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This weekend, Lehigh Valley Health Network, now part of Jefferson Health, will be out of network with UnitedHealthcare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[214,119,121,120,232,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-174424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-_homepage_top_stories","9":"tag-allentown","10":"tag-allentown-headlines","11":"tag-allentown-news","12":"tag-allentown-area","13":"tag-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}