The two companies have been in contract negotiations for months, but were not able to come to an agreement by Dec. 31. The sticking point has been how much United Healthcare reimburses Prisma for its services. United Healthcare services several employer-sponsored healthcare plans in the Upstate (including UMR). Customers who normally use Prisma Health offices can still visit Bon Secours St. Francis, AnMed, Spartanburg Regional and some other medical providers in the United Healthcare network.
Kalamazoo County has already put the money in their budget, and the city of Kalamazoo is about to approve their share, to unlock participation by RIP Medical Debt.
Steward Health Care plans to close New England Sinai Acute Long-Term Care and Rehabilitation Hospital in Stoughton and place patients in other facilities by early April 2024.
Patients have reported finding it difficult to figure out what they were charged for, how much they were charged, and whether those charges are fair and reasonable. medical billing errors don't only cause problems for patients. They also are a source of frustration for providers, who lose time and money untangling billing codes, insurance requirements, partial payments, and other bureaucratic aspects of billing and payment procedures.
Per a public notice page uploaded by the hospital, Sarasota Memorial has been engaged in discussions with UnitedHealthcare since August. The current contract between the two entities is set to expire on December 31, 2023. Should the parties fail to reach an agreement by the year-end deadline, Sarasota Memorial’s facilities of practice will become out-of-network providers for UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members starting January 1, 2024.
The combination of these 2 pressures means hospitals and health systems are “increasingly financially strapped.” The report analyzed data from a sample survey of more than 1300 hospitals and health systems. From January 2022 to June 2023, the median health system, defined as the 50th percentile of systems, reported a drop in cash reserves of 28%. Days’ cash on hand dropped from 173 to 124 days. The declines in cash reserve were attributed to rapidly rising expenses, according to the report.