Updated June 12, 2025
We are actively negotiating with UAB Medicine to renew our network relationship. Our goal is to reach an agreement that is affordable for consumers and employers while providing continued, uninterrupted network access to UAB.
Our current contract remains in effect through July 31, 2025. In the event we are unable to reach an agreement, UAB’s hospitals, facilities and its physicians would be out of network for people enrolled in the following plans, effective Aug. 1.
- UnitedHealthcare employer-sponsored commercial plans
- UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans, including Dual Special Needs Plan (DSNP) and Group Retiree plans.
For a comprehensive list of hospitals and providers impacted by this negotiation, please see the following FAQs.
UAB is one of the most expensive health systems in the southeast, yet they’re demanding a double-digit price hike in one year for our employer-sponsored commercial plans as well as a significant rate increase for our Medicare Advantage plans.
UAB’s proposal would make its costs even more of an outlier than they are today compared to peer health systems in the southeast region as well as nationally. Agreeing to UAB’s demands would significantly increase premiums and out-of-pocket costs for consumers as well as the cost of doing business for employers.
UAB’s proposal would make UAB Hospital more than 50% higher than the average cost at 25 other academic health systems participating in our commercial network throughout the entire southeast.
Agreeing to a double-digit price hike in one year would make UAB Hospital more expensive than all but one of these 25 academic health systems in the southeast, and would make it more than 50% higher compared to the average cost of all of these systems combined.
These systems are academic medical centers, and similar to UAB, provide more complex services for patients. The majority of these systems are Level 1 trauma centers, and most are regarded as some of the top health systems in each of their respective states.
The rates UAB has proposed for our Medicare Advantage plans would be higher than all but one of the 25 academic health systems in the southeast, and would also be among the highest in the country.
UAB’s proposal for our Medicare Advantage plans would increase health care costs by nearly $20 million alone and would have a direct impact on the benefits our Medicare Advantage members rely on for their health care needs.
Agreeing to UAB’s proposal would not only make their costs a significant outlier in the southeast, it would make them among the highest cost in our Medicare Advantage network nationally.
UAB continues to drive up health care costs for people and businesses throughout Alabama through a variety of ways, including its recent acquisition of St. Vincent’s.
UAB acquired five St. Vincent’s hospitals in November 2024. UAB’s current proposal includes a near 30% price hike for these hospitals in just the first year of our commercial contract as well as substantial rate increases for our Medicare Advantage plans.
UAB stated in a July 2024 article they did not anticipate increased costs for patients as a result of the acquisition.
“Our intent is to sustain patients’ access to quality healthcare, and we do not anticipate increased costs,” they wrote in a statement. “In fact, we anticipate that we will be able to achieve economies of scale to – ultimately – reduce the cost of care.”
UAB’s proposal is a direct contrast to that statement made less than a year ago.
To further illustrate UAB’s strategy to drive up costs for consumers and employers, the health system has also informed us it plans to begin billing claims at the Callahan Eye hospital location under the UAB Hospital-contracted rate. This would increase health care costs by more than 60% for consumers and employers
There would be no change to the quality of care or services provided to our members. The only change would be consumers and employers paying significantly more for the same care received today.
The majority of UAB’s proposed price hikes – coupled with their already egregiously high costs – comes out of the operating budgets of self-insured employers.
UAB’s history of unsustainable rate increases along with the double-digit price hike they’re seeking for our commercial plans in just one year would directly drive up health care costs for self-insured employers. These employers pay the cost of their employees’ medical bills themselves rather than relying on UnitedHealthcare to pay those claims.
More than 80% of our commercial members are enrolled in self-insured plans in Alabama.
As the prices for health care continue to rise, employers have less money available to help grow their business through things like investments in new technologies or increase salaries for employees.
We proposed to extend our contract 60 days to provide people continued network access to the health system without putting them in the middle of our negotiation. UAB refused.
We proposed to extend our contract through Sept. 30, allowing our organizations additional time to continue our discussions while keeping the people we serve out of the middle of this. UAB refused, presumably to use its patients as leverage to pressure us to agree to the significant price hikes they’re seeking.
We appreciate the quality care UAB provides to Alabama families and want to keep them in our network. The rates we are proposing would continue to reimburse UAB at more than fair and reasonable rates while helping to slow the unsustainable rise in health care costs at the health system.
We have presented UAB with multiple proposals that demonstrate our willingness to compromise as part of good-faith negotiation. Unfortunately, UAB continues to repeat its demands for significant price hikes that are not affordable for consumers or employers.
Our goal during this negotiation is the same as our members – to help them access the care they need and to make health care as affordable as possible. We urge UAB to join us at the negotiating table and help make health care more affordable for the people and employers we serve.