Possibly to no one’s great surprise, peace has broken out between UNC Health and the country’s fourth-largest health insurer.
The state-owned hospital system and UnitedHealthcare announced on Thursday that they’d signed a new multi-year contract that means UNC’s doctors, hospitals and clinics will remain in-network with United.
Terms of the deal — including just how many years we’re talking about — remain undisclosed.
“This new agreement will benefit our patients across the state as well as our providers,” says Dr. Matt Ewend, UNC Health’s chief clinical officer, in the system’s announcement.
“Our patients will not face increased costs and stress of going out of network or seeking new providers for their care,” Ewend says. “We look forward to working with United in the coming years to improve access, reduce costs and eliminate obstacles to care.”
Thursday’s announcement came two weeks and a day after UNC Health announced the extension of its network deal with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (the country’s 10th-largest health insurer, according to Forbes).
UNC Health and UnitedHealthcare were facing an April 1 deadline for signing a new deal, lest UnitedHealthcare’s non-Medicaid customers in North Carolina go out of network for the state hospital system.
UnitedHealthcare previously indicated that UNC Health had been seeking “significant price hikes” from the insurer.
For its part, UNC Health complained about reimbursement denials, billing appeals and other UnitedHealthcare practices it said created barriers to “medically necessary care.”
