We are in discussions with St. Peter's Health Partners (St. Peter’s) to renew our long-standing relationship so that our members have continued access to St. Peter’s hospitals and physicians in the Albany area of upstate New York.
We want to keep St. Peter's in our network and are committed to engaging in productive negotiation.
If we are unable to reach an agreement, St. Peter’s providers and hospitals will be out of network for members enrolled in employer-sponsored and individual commercial plans, Medicare Advantage and Group Retiree plans, Dual Special Needs Plans (DSNP), as well as UnitedHealthcare Community Plans in New York (Medicaid), effective July 1, 2024.
In compliance with New York cooling off requirements, members enrolled in fully insured commercial and Medicaid managed care plans will have continued network access to all of St. Peter’s hospitals through Aug. 31, 2024.
We are negotiating with St. Peter’s in good faith and are hopeful we will reach an agreement at fair, market-competitive rates. We have a responsibility to provide the people we serve with access to quality health care while also helping to contain rapidly rising health care costs.
We urge St. Peter’s to work with us to reach an agreement that will ensure the members we serve can continue to afford care at St. Peter’s.
St. Peter’s demands for an unaffordable price hike would make health care more expensive for families and employers in upstate New York
At a time when many Americans and their employers are struggling financially, St. Peter’s continues to demand unreasonable price hikes that are neither affordable nor sustainable for families and employers in the Albany region.
Excessive rate increases drive up overall health care costs, directly resulting in a financial strain for the members we serve, including impacting the benefits we are able to provide to seniors who are enrolled in our Medicare Advantage plans.
Agreeing to St. Peter’s proposed rate increases will drive up premiums and out-of-pocket costs for our members, as well as the cost of doing business for our employer-group customers, impacting their ability to offer health care coverage for their employees.
We recognize that St. Peter’s is an important care provider and have offered meaningful, market-competitive rate increases that will ensure St. Peter’s hospitals and physicians continue to be fairly compensated for the important care they provide to our members.
We remain open to conversation with St. Peter’s but take seriously the impact that rate increases have on our customers, members and overall health care costs. We are asking St. Peter’s to work with us to reach an agreement that families and employers in the Albany region can afford.
Employers could face large cost increases if we agreed to St. Peter’s demands
More than 70% of our employer-sponsored members in New York are enrolled in self-funded plans, which means that these employers pay the cost of their employees’ medical bills themselves rather than relying on UnitedHealthcare to pay those claims.
A majority of the price hike St. Peter’s is seeking would come out of the operating budgets of our self-funded employers.
Our employer group customers have charged us with the responsibility of providing their employees access to quality, affordable health care. We pass any savings from negotiating more competitive rates directly to our self-funded customers, which they could in turn use to hold premiums steady for employees or to lower them in some cases. Employers can also use any savings to enhance benefits, increase salaries or help grow their organization.
As the prices for health care continue to rise, employers have less money available to help grow the business through things like investments in new technologies or salary increases for hard-working employees.
As many businesses struggle to attract and retain the employees they need, we are hopeful St. Peter’s will work with us to reach an agreement at fair, market- competitive rates that will ensure the people and customers we serve can continue to afford care at St. Peter’s hospitals and with its physicians.
St. Peter’s is putting patients in the middle of this negotiation in an effort to secure rate increases
St. Peter’s is potentially creating unnecessary and completely avoidable disruption in access to care for members in the Albany region.
We remain committed to working with St. Peter’s and requested an extension to our current contract to give both organizations additional time to reach an agreement without creating stress and anxiety for our members.
We are disappointed that St. Peter’s rejected this request.
We will remain at the negotiating table with St. Peter’s for as long as it takes to reach an agreement that will ensure the people we serve have continued access to care that is both quality and affordable.
We urge St. Peter’s to work with us to reach an agreement so that our members have continued access to St. Peter’s hospitals and providers.
We have created the following FAQs to ensure you and your family have the information needed regarding next steps as well as details to help meet your health care needs
