{"id":17659,"date":"2025-10-28T13:52:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/17659\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T13:52:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:52:08","slug":"lvhn-announces-plan-to-terminate-unitedhealthcare-contract-over-payment-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/17659\/","title":{"rendered":"LVHN announces plan to terminate UnitedHealthcare contract over payment dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"

The parent of Lehigh Valley Hospital and its affiliated medical offices says it will no longer accept UnitedHealthcare<\/a> insurance beginning in 2026.<\/p>\n

That could change if the insurer addresses what Lehigh Valley Health Network calls \u201creimbursement issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lehigh Valley Health Network, part of Jefferson Health, announced the change Monday. <\/p>\n

UnitedHealthcare responded by accusing Lehigh Valley Health Network of \u201cmaking misleading and potentially false public statements about the status of our relationship\u201d at the time of year when patients across the United States are evaluating their health insurance coverage.<\/p>\n

Network officials say they\u2019ve been working with UnitedHealthcare for more than two years to address what they call \u201cunfair payment practices.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cUnited refuses to pay LVHN in accordance with the rates and expectations that were originally agreed upon,\u201d Lehigh Valley Health Network said in a statement. \u201cWe have worked tirelessly to reach a resolution with United, but they\u2019re not interested in finding a fair solution for our patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, we have made the decision to terminate LVHN\u2019s contract with UnitedHealthcare unless UnitedHealthcare works with Jefferson Health to remedy the LVHN reimbursement issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lehigh Valley Health Network says it intends to drop UnitedHealthcare as an accepted in-network insurer<\/a> Jan. 25, 2026, for Medicare Advantage patients and April 25, 2026, for commercial patients. <\/p>\n

Effective on those dates, UnitedHealthcare patients will be out-of-network at LVHN, network spokeswoman Jamie Stover said.<\/p>\n

The network advises UnitedHealthcare patients to keep their Lehigh Valley Health Network scheduled treatments and appointments until then.<\/p>\n

The change does not impact other Jefferson Health providers, which are in the Philadelphia metropolitan area and surrounding counties. Creating one of the nation\u2019s top-15 largest nonprofit health systems, a 2024 merger made the legacy company of Jefferson the parent of Lehigh Valley Health Network<\/a>, its Lehigh Valley Hospital locations and other holdings. Jefferson Health earlier this month said 600 to 700 employees, or about 1% of staff, were being laid off<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lehigh Valley Health Network\u2019s statement Tuesday continued: \u201cWe encourage UnitedHealthcare members to contact UnitedHealthcare to understand their coverage options and advocate for continued access to Jefferson Health and LVHN providers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement to lehighvalleylive.com, a UnitedHealthcare spokesperson said the company is \u201cin the process of validating\u201d a notice received Monday from Lehigh Valley Health Network \u201cintending to potentially end our contract.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe delivered a proposal to Lehigh Valley in April,\u201d the company states. \u201cWe have yet to receive a counter proposal from the health system, whose last proposal was provided in December 2024 and included a near 30% price hike in the first year of our contract. <\/p>\n

\u201cLehigh Valley is making misleading and potentially false public statements about the status of our relationship in the middle of the Medicare Annual Enrollment period presumably as a negotiating tactic. We ask Lehigh Valley to join us at the negotiating table and work toward an agreement that is affordable rather than using consumers as leverage to significantly drive up health care costs for Pennsylvanians and local companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jefferson Health Executive Vice President Mark Whalen responded Monday by stating: \u201cThe only thing misleading here is United Healthcare portraying this as a standard negotiation when, in fact, this is a direct result of United not abiding by the terms of the contract they agreed to. This ongoing dispute is caused by United Healthcare\u2019s implementation of a multiyear 30% price decrease that was not agreed to, not accepted and is not sustainable. We have been actively attempting to resolve this issue for the past several years before issuing today\u2019s termination notification.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UnitedHealthcare announcement comes three years after Lehigh Valley Health Network relented on threats to drop Aetna in-network benefits<\/a>, also over a patient coverage dispute. <\/p>\n

It also comes as notices of rising health insurance premiums are landing in patients\u2019 mailboxes<\/a>. That\u2019s tied, at least in part, to a debate at the center of the ongoing federal government shutdown, as Democrats seize on these rising premiums to pressure Republicans into extending expiring subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump and GOP leaders say they\u2019ll consider extending enhanced tax credits to lower rates that otherwise expire at year\u2019s end \u2014 but only after Democrats vote to reopen the government. In the meantime, people enrolled in the plans are already being notified of hefty premium increases for 2026.<\/p>\n

UnitedHealthcare is the company whose executive Brian Thompson was gunned down last Dec. 4<\/a> in Midtown Manhattan. Alleged gunman Luigi Mangione was arrested five days later in Altoona, Pennsylvania. <\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report. <\/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":"The parent of Lehigh Valley Hospital and its affiliated medical offices says it will no longer accept UnitedHealthcare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-17659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17659","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=17659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}