HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) – Huntsville Hospital has announced it has terminated its relationship with the insurance giant UnitedHealthcare.
Hospital officials said this comes after months of disappointing negotiations between the two groups. This termination includes every hospital within the HH system.
Those who use UnitedHealthcare can still go to Huntsville Hospital, but it would be considered out-of-network. According to UnitedHealthcare’s website, out-of-network care typically costs more for patients.
Retired educators under the Public Education Employees’ Health Insurance Plan (PEEHIP) and retired state employees under Alabama’s State Employees’ Insurance Board, will see no increase in out-of-pocket costs, according to officials.
Huntsville Hospital states the decision wasn’t made lightly and they will continue to pursue a resolution. They said the negotiations were going on for more than a year.
The change will come at different times for different hospitals around the Tennessee Valley. Those times are below:
Read Huntsville Hospital’s full statement below:
After several months of disappointing negotiations, Huntsville Hospital Health System has sent notice of termination to insurance giant UnitedHealthcare. HH Health made the difficult decision to end the participation agreement between the insurer and HH Health member hospitals. The decision impacts United’s commercial health insurance and Medicare Advantage plans. It does not impact United’s VA managed care plan for veterans.
Patients who have UnitedHealthcare insurance may continue to use Huntsville Hospital Health System as an out-of-network hospital. If you are a retired educator(PEEHIP) or retired State employee (SEIB) and your coverage is with UHC Medicare, there will be no impact on your out-of-pocket expenses at Huntsville Hospital Health System.
Helen Keller Hospital in Sheffield will be the first hospital to leave the United network when their contract ends on October 15, 2024. Highlands Medical Center in Scottsboro will leave the United network on October 31; and Huntsville Hospital and Madison Hospital will become out-of-network hospitals on November 14. Decatur Morgan Hospital will no longer be participating November 30. The remaining HH System hospitals will exit in 2025.
The decision was not made hastily, and we continue to pursue a resolution. For more than a year, HH Health has been working towards a mutually beneficial contract with UnitedHealthcare. To date, HH’s efforts have not been met with the same level of care from the Fortune 500 Company.
UnitedHealthcare, also known as UnitedHealthGroup, is the largest health insurance company in the world. The Minnesota-based insurance conglomerate most recently had annual earnings of $32.4 billion. To put that into perspective, in the 20 minutes you might spend considering this message, UnitedHealthcare has made over a million dollars *($1,231,278.54 to be exact).
And while reporting those billions of dollars in earnings, UnitedHealthcare hasn’t even paid our health system the amount contractually owed from the current agreement. In fact, their denial rate on patient claims is 75 percent higher than other like insurers.
As a community-owned system, HH Health System serves as the healthcare safety net for the Tennessee Valley. The system must be paid according to the agreed-upon contracts, fairly and promptly, in order to provide critical emergency, medical and surgical services in the communities we serve.
UnitedHealthcare subscribers who have questions should contact their UnitedHealthcare representative at 1-877-298-2341. As a reminder, CMS Medicare Open Enrollment begins October 15 through December 7. Patients can view plan options at Medicare.gov
WAFF 48 News reached out to UnitedHealthcare for comments on the now-terminated negotiations. According to the insurance company, Huntsville Hospital asked for a 25% price hike in just a year.
They also claimed the hospital system costs more than other north Alabama hospitals in UnitedHealthcare’s network.
According to a UnitedHealthcare spokesperson, this impacts people enrolled in the following benefit plans:
The spokesperson says the Huntsville Hospital Health System’s physicians are not impacted and continue to remain in the UnitedHealthcare network for commercials, Medicare Advantage and IFP members regardless of the outcome of their negotiations.
UnitedHealthcare’s full statement is below:
Huntsville Hospital Health System issued a notice to end our contract for its hospitals and is demanding an over 25% price hike in just one year, despite already being nearly 20% higher than the average cost of other hospitals in our network in northern Alabama. We are committed to continued good-faith negotiation with the goal of reaching an agreement that ensures continued, uninterrupted network access to the health system’s hospitals. We urge Huntsville Hospital Health System to provide a proposal that’s realistic and affordable for Alabama families and employers.
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