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.
*https://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/content/dam/UHG/PDF/investors/2023/UNH-Q4-2023-Release.pdf
