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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Insurer and cancer center reach agreement in contract dispute that left
thousands of patients in limbo
By Brenda Goodman, CNN
Updated:
9:14 AM EDT, Tue July 1, 2025
Source: CNN
Tuesday morning, the nation’s largest insurance company,
UnitedHealthcare and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center they had
reached a multi-year agreement that will allow some 19,000
UnitedHealthcare and Oxford health plan customers to remain in-network
for their cancer care.
The insurer and cancer center had been locked in a tense contract
dispute. Negotiations went past a June 30 deadline, leaving many
patients scrambling to find alternative coverage or care options.
One of them was Marla Puccetti, who said she spent all day Monday on
the phone, urgently trying to reach someone at her health insurance
company and the hospital that’s treating her cancer.
“I’ve been on hold all day long, basically,” said Puccetti, 53,
who co-owns a restaurant with her partner in Narrowsburg, New York.
Puccetti doesn’t have out-of-network coverage on her current plan, so
she would have had to pay the full cost of her care, which she can’t
afford. But going anywhere but MSK for her treatment seemed
unthinkable.
“It’s terrifying. I don’t want to go anywhere else,” she said.
“All of my doctors are there. All of my surgeons are there. I feel
like they saved my life.”
‘It all came as a shock’
The insurer and the cancer center, which has locations in New York
City, New York state and New Jersey, had been in tense contract
negotiations over rate increases that MSK said it needed to keep up
with the cost of care.
UnitedHealthcare said MSK asked for a 30% increase in payments for its
facilities and physicians, as well as a 36% increase for its cancer
center. The insurer said the increases would drive up costs for
consumers by $405 million over the next two years.
The insurer and cancer center didn’t announce the final terms of the
new contract.
“We understand how difficult and deeply personal this negotiation has
been for people and their families,” Junior Harewood,
UnitedHealthcare CEO, New York, said. “We are pleased to renew our
relationship and provide continued access to MSK for the people who
rely on them for quality cancer care.”
The insurer had said it already reimburses MSK at rates significantly
higher than other systems specializing in cancer care in the region.
Dr. Cardinale Smith, chief medical officer for MSK, disputed the idea
that the cancer center is driving up the cost of care for patients. She
said Monday its cost of care is actually 4% to 16% lower than at
comparable hospitals in the area.
“Our patients are getting better outcomes for total lower cost of
care,” Smith said.
UnitedHealthcare is the nation’s largest insurer, and Smith said hers
isn’t the only system that was being squeezed in contract
negotiations with them.
“This is happening in other institutions as well, and it reflects
what I think is a deeper tension in our health care system where there
are financial priorities that are really being placed ahead of what’s
best for patients,” Smith said.
Puccetti, the MSK patient, was diagnosed with breast and then cervical
cancer just a few weeks apart in 2021. After a mastectomy and a
hysterectomy, her breast cancer is in remission, but her cervical
cancer has been tougher to snuff out. It has returned three times. She
has tallied 60 rounds of radiation and 100 rounds of chemotherapy and
has lost her hair three times.
Her tumor is in a bad spot, she says, attached to both her bladder and
her bowel. Doctors said they could remove it surgically, but it would
leave her dependent on bags hanging outside her body to collect urine
and stool for the rest of her life, a situation she found untenable.
Now, she’s on an immunotherapy drug that helps her body recognize and
attack the cancer, with a goal of keeping it stable. She has been
making the two-hour trip from her home in upstate New York to MSK about
once a week for the past few months for tests to help doctors keep tabs
on the tumor.
She got a letter just two weeks ago from UnitedHealthcare that said MSK
might not be in her network starting July 1.
“It all came as a shock that this was actually happening,” she said
Monday.
Patients caught in the middle
Until Tuesday’s announcement of a new agreement, thousands of
patients had been left uncertain about whether they would be able to
afford to continue their care at MSK.
Puccetti said she was researching other coverage options. Her
UnitedHealthcare plan costs $3,200 a month and provides some coverage,
but she still owes “thousands and thousands” in out-of-pocket
costs.
Through it all, she’s worked full-time at the restaurant, cooking,
tending bar, keeping the books.
She applied for financial aid through Memorial Sloan Kettering but
hasn’t heard whether she qualifies.
“Everyone kept saying, ‘well, don’t panic, because they’re
going to come to a resolution.’ So I tried not to panic, but how can
you not?” she said.
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