UNC Health inks long-term deal with UnitedHealthcare. What it means for patients

Brian Gordon
·2 min read

UNC Health and UnitedHealthcare signed a multi-year agreement Thursday, ending a months-long negotiation that threatened to make thousands of North Carolina patients out-of-network at the health care system’s facilities.

“This new agreement will benefit our patients across the state as well as our providers,” Dr. Matt Ewend, chief clinical officer at UNC Health, said in a statement. “Our patients will not face increased costs and stress of going out of network or seeking new providers for their care.”

If the two sides hadn’t reached a deal by April 1, the lapsed contract would have made UNC Health out-of-network for about 200,000 people, UNC Health spokesperson Alan Wolf said. These patients would have needed to change insurance providers or change physicians to avoid steeper costs.

UNC Health said it will make affected patients aware of the new deal “as quickly as possible.”

What stalled negotiations?

The impasse, which started last year, centered on UnitedHealthcare’s reimbursement rates, which UNC Health believed were too low to compensate for higher labor costs and supply prices.

In response, UnitedHealthcare spokesperson Catherine Farrell told The News & Observer this month that a previous UNC Health rate proposal “would significantly increase health care costs and is not affordable or sustainable for North Carolinians and employers.”

Both parties continued to negotiate in-person over the past two weeks. Neither UNC Health nor UnitedHealthcare divulged the length of their new contract.

“We thank our members and customers for their support and patience throughout this process and are honored to continue supporting all of the people throughout North Carolina who depend on use for access to quality and affordable health care,” UnitedHealthcare spokesperson Cole Manbeck said in a statement.

The Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare is among the largest health insurers in North Carolina, and this was not its first long negotiation with a Triangle-based provider. In 2022, its members were out-of-network at WakeMed for over five months until the provider and insurer reached a new three-year contract.

UNC Health has 19 hospitals and more than 900 clinics statewide. Earlier in March, it announced a new four-year deal with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, the biggest health insurer in the state.