Dive Brief:
- Carolinas Healthcare System has come to the end of its contract agreement with United Healthcare, and the two have not yet been able to reach an agreement.
- Even though their contract expired on Saturday, hospital officials say they will continue to provide care for United Healthcare patients as though they were still in-network, at least for the next few months.
- The contract negotiations have been going on for several months, and in January, United Healthcare began notifying its customers there was a possibility that a new agreement might not be reached.
Dive Insight:
If the contract is allowed to expire, it will affect 12 hospitals and many doctors offices that serve nearly 80,000 United Healthcare members in the Charlotte area. Although United Healthcare members with Medicare supplement plans would not be affected because they have the option of choosing their own doctor, Medicare Advantage patients would be affected because services received at Carolinas HealthCare would now be considered out-of-network.
Carolinas Healthcare and United Healthcare have been doing business together for more than a decade. United Healthcare claims that they sent their first proposal to Carolinas Healthcare in June of 2014 with the goal of reaching an agreement by the deadline, but that Carolinas Healthcare waited three months to respond.