TriHealth and UnitedHealthcare are locked in a dispute over payment rates for health care services with a Dec. 31 deadline looming to reach an agreement.
In the meantime, thousands of local patients are uncertain what this will mean for their coverage come January.
On Cincinnati Edition, we discuss what is at stake for patients and what TriHealth and UnitedHealthcare are telling their customers.
We reached out to UnitedHealthcare for participation in this conversation. They declined to be on the program but provided this statement:
“TriHealth is demanding a 35% hike for its hospitals that would make it more expensive than any peer health system in the Cincinnati market. Approximately $80 million of the $94 million TriHealth is seeking would come out of the operating budgets of local employers, impacting the money they have to grow their business and compensate their employees. We are proposing rate increases that continue to reimburse TriHealth at market-competitive rates. It remains our top priority to reach an agreement that maintains continued network access to TriHealth. However, we need them to provide a proposal Ohio families and employers can afford.”
Guests:
- Mark Clement, president and CEO, TriHealth
- Emily Herbert, employee and patient, TriHealth
Mark Clement is a member of Cincinnati Public Radio's board.
Beginning at noon, call 513-419-7100 or email talk@wvxu.org to have your voice heard on this topic. You can catch a recorded replay at 8 p.m.