A hospital network and an insurer that cover a large share of New York’s Medicare Advantage members are still working out the terms of a new contract, and the clock they set for themselves is running out. Neither side has announced a finished agreement, and neither has announced a breakup. For enrollees who rely on that hospital system for ongoing care, the gap between those two outcomes is the difference between keeping a doctor in-network and starting over during Open Enrollment.
An Extension That Buys Time, Not a Settlement
NewYork-Presbyterian and UnitedHealthcare, which in New York State also operates as Oxford Health Plans and Sierra Health and Life Insurance Company, have agreed to extend current in-network coverage only through September 30, 2026, for Medicare Advantage members, according to NewYork-Presbyterian’s own coverage-change page. The hospital system’s page states plainly that this extension is a temporary bridge “while negotiations continue,” language that describes talks still in progress rather than a signed contract. The same page notes the extension itself was a walk-back of an earlier plan: NewYork-Presbyterian says its facilities would not go out-of-network starting September 1, 2026, “as previously communicated by UnitedHealthcare,” meaning the two sides had already missed one internal deadline before agreeing to this one.
What the plan letter does not do: An Annual Notice of Change lists what changed, but never compares the plan against the alternatives on cost, drugs and doctors. Run the comparison in The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit.
What October 1 Looks Like Without a Deal
If no new agreement is reached by September 30, NewYork-Presbyterian’s page says that starting October 1, 2026, all NewYork-Presbyterian Hospitals and the practices under the NewYork-Presbyterian Medical Groups would be considered out-of-network providers for most UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members. The list of facilities named on that page runs well beyond a single Manhattan campus: it includes NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, the Allen Hospital, Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, Lower Manhattan Hospital, Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, Queens, Hudson Valley Hospital and Westchester Behavioral Health, along with Gracie Square Hospital and the Rogosin Institute. The page lists specific carve-outs: AARP Medigap and Supplemental policies would not be affected, nor would Group Retiree PPO plans, and members with individual policies or group HMO plans may retain some out-of-network benefits depending on their specific plan. Providers who work under ColumbiaDoctors or Weill Cornell Medicine would stay in-network even in a lapse, but the hospital-based services those same doctors rely on, including diagnostic testing, pre-admission testing and inpatient admissions at NewYork-Presbyterian facilities, would not automatically follow them into network status.
UnitedHealthcare’s Own Description of the Talks
UnitedHealthcare’s account of the same extension, posted on a page titled “Network Negotiations with NewYork-Presbyterian,” uses different language for the same September 30 date: the insurer says it “extended network access to NewYork-Presbyterian (NYP) through Sept. 30, 2026 while our organizations finalize the terms of our new multi-year agreement,” according to UnitedHealthcare’s own network-negotiations page. That phrasing, a multi-year agreement being finalized rather than a deal that has fallen apart, is the clearest evidence from either party that this remains a live negotiation rather than a wind-down. The insurer’s page lists a broader set of plans riding on the same September 30 deadline than the hospital’s page does, including UnitedHealthcare and Oxford employer-sponsored commercial plans, Dual Special Needs Plans, Medicaid, the Empire Plan for New York State government employees, and Medicare Advantage plans including Group Retiree coverage.
A Deadline That Has Already Cost One Group of Members Coverage
The two organizations’ history on this contract is not entirely theoretical. UnitedHealthcare’s page separately discloses that it did not extend its NewYork-Presbyterian agreement for members enrolled in Individual Family Plans, and that NewYork-Presbyterian has been out-of-network for that group since January 1, 2026. That earlier lapse, on a different segment of UnitedHealthcare’s book of business, is the outcome Medicare Advantage members are now trying to avoid, and it shows the September 30 date is not a routine formality UnitedHealthcare and NewYork-Presbyterian are certain to meet.
The December 29 Backstop for Patients Already in Treatment
NewYork-Presbyterian’s page includes a continuity-of-care provision that softens, without eliminating, the risk for people already receiving treatment. For most patients undergoing an active course of treatment before October 1, 2026, scheduled appointments and treatments, including post-operative care, would still be treated as in-network through December 29, 2026. A patient who is pregnant when the deadline passes would remain in-network for the rest of the pregnancy and for postpartum care. Starting December 30, 2026, any further non-emergency visits would fall outside that protection unless UnitedHealthcare separately approves them. The safeguard covers people mid-treatment; it does not extend to a Medicare Advantage member who has not yet started care and would be looking for a first appointment after October 1.
Switching Plans Before the Deadline Instead of Waiting
NewYork-Presbyterian’s page directs Medicare Advantage enrollees who want to avoid any risk to compare other plans now rather than wait for a resolution, pointing members to Medicare’s official plan-comparison tool to check which insurers keep the hospital system in-network. For Medicare patients generally, the same page lists which health plans and companies currently keep NewYork-Presbyterian in-network outside of UnitedHealthcare, including Aetna, Anthem BCBS, Cigna, EmblemHealth, Fidelis, Healthfirst, MVP Health Care and Wellcare, though it cautions that not every one of those plans is accepted at every NewYork-Presbyterian location. NewYork-Presbyterian’s broader coverage-changes overview page shows the UnitedHealthcare dispute is not limited to Medicare Advantage; the same September 30 deadline also applies to UnitedHealthcare’s commercial and Medicaid plans at the hospital system, meaning the outcome of this one negotiation affects several different categories of NewYork-Presbyterian patients at once, not just its Medicare population.
A Negotiation With a Deadline
A hospital system’s own coverage-change page can spell out exactly what happens if a contract lapses, but it cannot tell an individual enrollee which of the dozens of other Medicare Advantage plans in New York keeps the same doctors and prescriptions in-network. That comparison work falls entirely on the member, on a timeline set by two companies still negotiating with each other. Waiting for a final announcement before starting that research leaves less time to act if the deadline passes without a deal.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit is a 42-page decision kit built around a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors, along with a prescription-by-plan comparison and a provider call script.
Compare replacement options against the Open Enrollment calendar in The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit.
AI-assisted research and drafting; reviewed by an editor.
