The University of Vermont Health Network announced a last-minute deal with UnitedHealthcare, allowing people covered by the insurer to continue receiving in-network care at UVM facilities in Vermont and northern New York until April 2026.
The deal resolves a yearslong dispute between the provider and the insurer over coverage, just days before the agreement between the two entities was set to expire.
“We are glad to have averted a loss of coverage for our patients who receive their insurance through UnitedHealthcare commercial plans,” Sunny Eappen, the president and CEO of the UVM Health Network, said in a press release. “I’m certain our patients, families and caregivers who are impacted by this are frustrated — justifiably so. This is not how we want to engage with payer partners and hope we don’t end up in a situation like this in the future.”
About 2,660 residents of Vermont and New York receive coverage through UnitedHealthcare, although it’s unclear how many other family members are insured on those plans, according to Annie Mackin, a spokesperson for UVM.
The disagreement between the insurer and the provider only affected commercial insurance plans, and had no impact on state or federally administered UnitedHealthcare insurance, such as Medicare, Medicaid or Veterans Affairs plans.
UVMHN and UnitedHealthcare have been at loggerheads for years. The Minnesota-based insurer has long said that care at the health network is too expensive. UVM Health Network, meanwhile, has argued that its prices simply reflect the costs of providing quality care.
The ongoing dispute has stoked anxiety among residents with UnitedHealthcare coverage. Both entities have announced multiple temporary extensions of coverage as negotiations continued.
But in October, UVM Health Network announced that talks had fallen through. UnitedHealthcare was scheduled to stop covering care through the provider on March 1.
The reversal came just a week before that deadline.
Mackin, the UVM Health Network spokesperson, said that UnitedHealthcare had changed course last-minute.
“They came back to the table and said, ‘Let’s do this,’” Mackin said. “Because we’d been operating under the assumption since last June that it was going to just terminate.”
Cole Manbeck, a spokesperson for UnitedHealthcare, said that he could not speak to the specifics of the negotiations. But UVM’s prices had been the primary obstacle, he said.
“The sticking point was really around the rate demands that UVM had had,” Manbeck said. “But at the end of the day, you know, our priority is ensuring that people in Vermont, New York have access to the care that they need.”
