In a letter to patients shared with Becker’s, HealthPartners said its HealthPartners and Park Nicollet clinics and hospitals will no-longer be in network with UnitedHealthcare MA plans at the end of 2024.
The letters will be sent to around 30,000 HealthPartners patients, a spokesperson told Becker’s.
HealthPartners operates eight hospitals and 55 primary care clinics in Minnesota and western Wisconsin.
In the letter to patients, Steve Connelly, MD and Mark Sannes, MD, the system’s co-executive medical directors, wrote that UnitedHealthcare denies and delays payments “at a rate unlike any other insurer in our market.”
“At times, this denial rate has been up to 10 times higher than other insurers we work with. UnitedHealthcare’s practices create unnecessary waits and delays for you, and they interfere with our ability to provide you with timely and appropriate care,” Dr. Connelly and Dr. Sannes wrote.
A spokesperson for UnitedHealthcare told Becker’s the insurer’s goal is to reach an agreement with HealthPartners before the contract expires at the end of the year.
“We proposed a contract that provided solutions HealthPartners sought to continue participating in our Medicare Advantage network,” the insurer said in a statement shared with Becker’s. “Rather than using the remaining time on our contract to implement these solutions, HealthPartners rescinded its position and is now putting Medicare Advantage patients in the middle of our negotiation, unnecessarily creating stress and fear for them while spreading outlandish, false claims.”
Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare is the largest Medicare Advantage insurer. It is the third-largest MA carrier in Minnesota, with 99,000 members in the state in 2024, according to Chartis.
HealthPartners, an integrated health system, also offers Medicare Advantage plans. In its letter to patients, HealthParters said MA members may wish to consider enrolling a new plan during the annual open enrollment period.
Several health systems have moved to drop one or multiple Medicare Advantage plans, often citing delayed and denied payments. Becker’s has reported at least 15 hospitals and health systems ending contracts with MA plans in 2024.
