UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members in five states face a hospital change at the turn of the year. Bon Secours could leave the network in South Carolina on Jan. 1 and in Virginia on Feb. 1, Aspirus Health could leave in Wisconsin and Michigan on Jan. 1, and White River Health in Arkansas has already said its hospitals are leaving on Jan. 1. Medicare open enrollment ends Dec. 7, weeks before any of those dates.
That order is the whole problem. A member who wants to keep a hospital has to decide whether to switch plans by Dec. 7 without knowing whether the contract talks will end in a deal. The three systems are in three different positions, and what a member can do depends on which one it is…