The University of Vermont Health Network, the state’s largest health care provider, and UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest health insurer, have extended their current contract through May 13 while they hammer out details of a tentative new agreement.
Both sides have been negotiating a new one-year contract for months. The current contract was originally set to expire April 1.
“(The) current contract is extended through (May 13) to provide additional time to finalize the terms of the agreement,” said UnitedHealthcare spokesperson Cole Manbeck. “Our members continue to have access to UVM’s facilities and physicians through (May 13) while we continue to finalize the terms of the overall deal.”
UVM Health Network spokesperson Annie Mackin confirmed the contract extension.
Neither side was willing to offer details.
UnitedHealthcare told customers in February that it would stop covering their care at UVM Health Network as in-network as of April 1. The insurer has said 5,000 Vermonters were at risk of losing their in-network coverage if the stalemate continued.
At the end of March, UnitedHealthcare and UVM Health Network struck a last-minute deal to extend their contract to April 30 while they continued to negotiate.
The latest extension means UnitedHealthcare is promising to continue to cover health care at UVM Health Network for less than two more weeks.
The insurer and the health care network have been at odds over how much UnitedHealthcare should reimburse UVM Health Network for care. Their dispute has left patients at UVM Medical Center in Burlington, Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin, Porter Medical Center in Middlebury and three hospitals in northern New York state wondering where they would get care.
The dispute between the insurer and the health care network is limited to employer-provided plans. Supplemental Medicare plans, Medicaid and veteran care are not affected.
Correction: Due to inaccurate information provided by UVM Medical Center and UnitedHealthCare, an earlier version of this article understated the length of the most recent contract extension.
