Lee Health, the Fort Myers health system, plans to leave UnitedHealthcare’s commercial and Medicare Advantage networks on Jan. 1, 2027. UnitedHealthcare members who want to keep seeing Lee Health doctors have until Dec. 7, the last day of Medicare’s fall enrollment period, to move to a plan that still covers them. People on a Medicare Supplement plan, often called Medigap, are not affected.
The split comes after months of public finger-pointing. Both sides say the other started it, and the contract still runs through Dec. 31, 2026.
What Lee Health and UnitedHealthcare each say
Lee Health announced the exit in late August in an open letter to patients. “Ultimately, Lee Health and UnitedHealthcare have fundamentally different priorities,” the letter said, according to Becker’s Hospital Review. The system cited slow approvals and denials, and said roughly one-third of its medical necessity denials tie to UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans. It also alleged the insurer owes it more than $100 million in disputed and underpaid claims…