Contract negotiations between St. Joseph’s Hospital and United Healthcare have taken a cooler turn.
On Friday, one hospital official said the insurer had “all but walked away from the table.”
“They are standing firm with their stance and we are holding very close with our proposals,” said Kevin Brenan, St. Joseph’s senior vice president and chief financial officer.
The two parties have been involved in contract talks that have centered on reimbursement rates. The contract is set to expire at midnight on Aug. 7. In 2008, said Brenan, about 8,500 patients coming through St. Joseph’s were United Healthcare members.
Roger Rollman, UHC spokesman, denied the company had pulled back from talks. “We haven’t closed any doors,” he said. “We’ve provided St. Joseph’s with multiple scenarios of increasing reimbursement and in each instance they’d come back and respond to us that this is what it’s got to be. It’s a take it or leave it and that’s not negotiations.” He declined to specify the percentage increase being sought but said it was in the “double digits.”
The tone is a bit tougher than it was earlier this month when hospital President and CEO Kirk Wilson, said the two parties were “negotiating in good faith” and that he expected a deal.
Such negotiations can sometimes go to the wire.
“This all sounds very familiar, this kind of brinkmanship and taking it right down to contract deadlines” said Betsy Imholz, special projects director for Consumers Union. “Consumers are caught in a place of having to deal with the fear of losing something or not getting the care that they need.
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