An extension is not an agreement, and the difference is about to matter for a large number of Medicare Advantage members in New York. NewYork-Presbyterian and UnitedHealthcare bought themselves another month at the end of July while talks continued. That month expires at the end of August, and the hospital system has published exactly what follows if nothing is signed.
The date the extension actually ends
The hospital system’s patient notice, updated as of July 28, 2026, states that the two sides agreed to extend current in-network coverage through August 31, 2026, for Medicare Advantage members while negotiations continue. That extension replaced an earlier August 1 cutoff UnitedHealthcare had already communicated to members.
If no new agreement is reached by August 31, the notice says, then starting September 1 all NewYork-Presbyterian hospitals and the practices that are part of the NewYork-Presbyterian Medical Groups will be considered out-of-network providers for most UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members. The list of affected locations is long and includes the Columbia and Weill Cornell campuses, Allen Hospital, Brooklyn Methodist, Lower Manhattan, Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, Queens, Westchester, Hudson Valley and Gracie Square, along with the four Medical Groups.
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Which plans are not swept in
The notice is specific about who is outside this. Changes to Medicare Advantage do not affect AARP Medigap and supplemental policies, and they do not affect Group Retiree PPO plans. Members holding individual policies or group HMO plans may have out-of-network benefits, and to the extent those benefits exist, they may still have some coverage at NewYork-Presbyterian, though at out-of-network cost sharing rather than the in-network terms they have now.
The system also lists the Medicare plans it currently remains in network with — Aetna, Anthem BCBS, Cigna, EmblemHealth, Fidelis, Healthfirst, MVP Health Care and Wellcare — with the caveat that not every plan is accepted at every location or affiliated practice.
What out-of-network actually costs on a Medicare Advantage plan
The phrase “out-of-network” carries very different consequences depending on the plan type, and the notice’s careful wording reflects that. On a Medicare Advantage HMO, out-of-network care outside emergencies is generally not covered at all, which means the full billed charge falls on the patient. On a PPO or a plan with out-of-network benefits, the care is covered but at a higher coinsurance rate and against a separate, higher out-of-pocket maximum.
That second structure is the one people underestimate. A plan may cap in-network spending at a few thousand dollars a year while setting a combined limit for in- and out-of-network care at several times that figure. A single inpatient admission at an academic medical center is enough to reach it.
UnitedHealthcare maintains its own page on the NewYork-Presbyterian negotiation, and the two sides do not always describe the state of talks in the same terms. Reading both is the fastest way for a member to see where the disagreement actually sits.
The trap in keeping the same doctor
There is a distinction in the notice that is easy to read past and expensive to misunderstand. Physicians who are part of ColumbiaDoctors and Weill Cornell Medicine would remain in network. A patient could therefore keep seeing the same doctor and reasonably conclude nothing has changed.
The hospital system spells out why that conclusion would be wrong. The care, specialties and services patients receive at NewYork-Presbyterian itself — diagnostic testing, laboratory testing, pre-admission testing, procedures, ambulatory surgery, inpatient admissions — may not be covered as in-network starting September 1. As the notice puts it, that would make it difficult, if not impossible, for the physician to care for the patient. The doctor stays; the building where the doctor works does not.
November 29, and what has to happen before September
For patients already in treatment, the notice sets out a second date that has had less attention than the first. For most patients undergoing an active course of treatment, inpatient or outpatient, before September 1, scheduled appointments and treatments including post-operative care would be considered in-network until November 29, 2026. From November 30, unless UnitedHealthcare approves it, any subsequent non-emergency visit would be out-of-network. Patients who are pregnant are treated separately: in-network for the duration of the pregnancy including delivery-related postpartum care, which the notice acknowledges may run longer than 90 days.
That structure rewards two specific actions taken before the end of August rather than after it. The first is establishing that a course of treatment is genuinely underway before September 1, since the continuity window is anchored to that date, and confirming eligibility for it through the UnitedHealthcare member services number printed on the insurance card. The second is checking whether an appointment already booked for September or later can be moved earlier, which the hospital system explicitly suggests patients ask their care team about.
The wider timing is unusually unhelpful. Medicare’s Annual Enrollment Period does not open until October 15, so a member who loses in-network access on September 1 cannot immediately switch to a plan that includes the hospital — with the exception of group retirees, whose options are set by a former employer or plan sponsor and may follow a different calendar entirely. NewYork-Presbyterian’s own advice for individual enrollees is to compare plans through the Medicare plan finder and to call 1-800-633-4227 for help. As of the last update to its notice, the system says only that there is no change in coverage yet and that it will post updates as they become available.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources; where a claim could not be verified from the public record, we say so.
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