United Healthcare customers will still pay in-network fees for Florida Hospital

Florida Hospital and United Healthcare reached a four-year deal early today after extending a midnight deadline for two hours to work out the details.

Representatives of the hospital chain and the insurance giant agreed on the terms of a new plan that would allow patients insured by United Healthcare to continue using the hospital and its affiliates at in-network rates without a lapse in coverage.

“It was really just a matter of combing through a pretty lengthy document,” said Florida Hospital spokeswoman Samantha O’Lenick. “Yesterday, everybody said they were committed to making this happen.”

O’Lenick said that executives from both sides had “been talking nonstop” since 9 a.m. Tuesday. She added: “We are working as fast as we can to sort through the remaining issues. As you might imagine, this is a long, long document.”

The contract dispute has affected more than 400,000 Central Floridians with United Healthcare policies and left many consumers irritated and bitter about the contentious contract negotiations.

At stake were in-network rates for non-emergency care at Florida Hospital’s 18 hospitals and 18 Centra Care locations, as well as the system’s radiology, lab and home health services.

Regardless of the outcome of the negotiations, United Healthcare customers can still pay in-network fees when they are treated by any of the 450 doctors employed by Florida Hospital. The insurer’s contract with the doctors was extended until Oct. 15.

“It’s a difficult situation,” said Sam Steinberg, a former hospital administrator turned health-care consultant who’s based in Port Orange. “The hospital is trying to get the best deal it can from the insurer, and the insurer’s trying to keep costs down. Unfortunately, it becomes a high-stakes game of chicken, and the consumer is caught in the middle.”

Executives from both sides have been meeting since November, but they remained at an impasse much of that time.

On Aug. 13 — one day before the contract was set to expire — the two companies announced an agreement that would allow United Healthcare members to continue using Florida Hospital facilities at in-network prices until Sept. 14.

At the time, O’Lenick said the two sides were very close to a new contract. “We just have to dot the i’s and cross the t’s,” she said then.

However, the insurance giant and the hospital system — which is owned by Adventist Health Care, the nation’s largest Protestant hospital chain — continued negotiating until the final hours.

Consumers such as Mitch Baum have watched the drawn-out negotiation process with frustration.

“The worst part about it is the lack of any news,” said Baum, 60, of Orlando.

Now he’s disgusted with United Healthcare, his insurer. “The only losers here are the UHC customers who will now think twice about renewing with a company that can’t reach an amicable agreement without resorting to airing their dirty laundry in the public forum,” he said.

Others blame both sides. Becky Cherney, president of the Florida Health Care Coalition, castigated both the hospital system and the insurer for dragging out the talks. “What callous disregard for patients from both sides,” she said.

Ultimately, however, Steinberg, the health-care consultant, thinks that consumers will not be affected — though they may be disgusted by watching the drama play out in public.

“The consumer will come out of it OK,” Steinberg said, “but in the meantime, it’s unsettling.”

Linda Shrieves can be reached at lshrieves@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5433.