Seventeen days separate the start of Medicare Open Enrollment on October 15 from November 1, the date NewYork-Presbyterian says all of its hospitals and medical-group practices will be out of network for UnitedHealthcare members if no new contract is signed. The hospital system’s notice, updated September 29, says no deal has been finalized. Members of UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans who use its doctors are the ones with a decision to make.
A provider call script and the Open Enrollment calendar. The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit holds both, for confirming each doctor and hospital before a plan is chosen.
Work out a switching timeline with the Open Enrollment calendar and provider call script →
A deadline that is also a bargaining date
The patient notice on NewYork-Presbyterian’s UnitedHealthcare page states that the two organizations “have agreed to extend current in-network coverage through October 31, 2026, for most commercial health plan, Medicaid, and Medicare Advantage members.” The wording that follows is the warning: if no new agreement is reached by that date, “starting November 1, 2026, all NewYork-Presbyterian Hospitals and the practices that are part of the NewYork-Presbyterian Medical Groups will be considered out-of-network.” The page describes negotiations as continuing.
The notice names no spokesperson and gives no count of affected patients, so the institution itself is the source for every date here. Nothing on the page says what either side is asking for, and it makes no prediction about the outcome. As of the September 29 update, the extension keeps current coverage in place through the end of October.
Which UnitedHealthcare members are in the extension
The extension covers “most” commercial, Medicaid and Medicare Advantage members, a qualifier the hospital system did not expand on. One group is already outside it. UnitedHealthcare Individual Family Plans sold on the New York State Exchange, including the plan called “Compass,” have been out of network at NewYork-Presbyterian facilities since January 1, 2026.
For a Medicare Advantage member, the notice leaves one practical instruction. Anyone unsure which plan covers them is told to call the UnitedHealthcare Member Services number printed on the back of the insurance card.
What out of network means under a Medicare Advantage plan
Medicare’s own fact sheet on Medicare Advantage provider networks explains why a contract dispute matters to a member. In most cases, it says, “you can only use doctors and other providers who are in the plan’s network” for non-emergency care, and out-of-network services typically cost more, although some plans offer non-emergency out-of-network coverage.
The fact sheet also says providers can leave a plan’s network at any time and that plans should give “at least 30 days’ notice” when a regular provider departs. Applied to this dispute, that notice period is the main protection the fact sheet describes. A member who relies on a NewYork-Presbyterian physician has, at most, the weeks between Open Enrollment’s start and November 1 to learn whether the contract will hold, and the fact sheet does not say whether a plan owes a different notice when an entire hospital system leaves at once.
Open Enrollment gives a window that closes before the answer may arrive
On Medicare.gov’s joining a plan page, the Open Enrollment period is listed as “October 15-December 7.” A person may “join, drop, or switch to another Medicare Advantage Plan with or without drug coverage,” or switch between a Medicare Advantage Plan and Original Medicare. Changes take effect “January 1 of the next year.”
Two clocks therefore run side by side. The network could end on November 1, a date with a possible bargaining deadline attached, while a plan switch chosen in Open Enrollment would not start until January 1. A member who waits for news from the negotiation has until December 7 to act. A member who acts sooner does so without knowing whether the contract will hold.
Verifying a doctor twice while the contract is unsettled
The contract may still settle, and a plan’s directory is only one half of the answer. The Medicare fact sheet tells members to find the provider directory on the plan’s website or request one from the plan, to confirm a provider remains in-network when an appointment is made, and to check, during Open Enrollment, that the doctors and facilities are in any plan under consideration. For a patient of NewYork-Presbyterian, that means asking the plan about each hospital and each physician, and asking the practice itself which plans it expects to accept in January.
The task multiplies for households with several doctors, and for anyone whose specialist works through one of the NewYork-Presbyterian Medical Groups, which the notice names as part of the break. Each answer is specific to the named doctor and the named plan, and a yes from the plan’s directory does not settle what the practice itself expects to accept after the new year. Writing down who said what, and when, gives a household something concrete to compare across the plans on its short list.
Joining, dropping or switching a plan during Open Enrollment is done directly with Medicare and the plan and requires no paid help.
The key dates remain the ones NewYork-Presbyterian posted on September 29: coverage extended through October 31, 2026, and out of network from November 1, 2026 without an agreement. Medicare.gov’s joining page supplies the other end of the calendar, an Open Enrollment window that ends December 7.
Confirming each hospital and doctor before a plan switch
A contract that may settle at the last minute leaves a Medicare Advantage member checking the same doctors with both the plan and the practice. The Open Enrollment window and the November 1 network date run on separate clocks, and each doctor has to be confirmed separately.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit includes a provider call script and a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors, so a call to a plan or a practice can be logged and weighed against finalist plans.
Get The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit →
An AI assistant helped prepare this article, which was checked against the NewYork-Presbyterian and Medicare.gov pages linked above.
