HealthPartners and UnitedHealthcare said Tuesday that they’ve reached a multi-year agreement that will allow some 30,000 subscribers to UHC’s senior Medicare Advantage plans to remain in-network next year, meaning patients can continue to visit HealthPartners locations such as Regions Hospital in downtown St. Paul and Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater.

The announcements should bring relief to thousands of former employees of Ramsey County, St. Paul Public Schools and the city of St. Paul, which had enrolled their retirees into UnitedHealthcare’s group Medicare Advantage program and were in danger of losing access to longtime providers.

In July, Bloomington-based HealthPartners informed subscribers across the Twin Cities that it was at loggerheads with UnitedHealthcare over the insurer’s many claim denials and limited reimbursements for medical care, and that HealthPartners no longer would accept the insurer’s Medicare Advantage coverage in 2025. City, county and school officials had urged both sides to keep negotiating and reach agreement prior to Medicare open enrollment, which runs Oct. 15 to Dec. 7.

The impasse left thousands of former public employees scrambling to determine whether to ditch the health insurer or risk not being allowed back to visit doctors, specialists and medical teams that some seniors have been seeing for years, if not decades.

“We’re sorry that this situation has caused uncertainty and stress for many of our patients over the past few months,” wrote Steve Connelly and Mark Sannes, co-executive medical directors at HealthPartners/Park Nicollet, in an open letter to patients Tuesday.

Still time to change plans

The directors said that in 2025, the care system will remain in-network for several Medicare Advantage plans, including UnitedHealthcare, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, HealthPartners and Medica. The Park Nicollet clinics and Methodist Hospital will be in-network for UCare’s Medicare Advantage plans.

“We’d like you to know that we were able to reach an agreement with UnitedHealthcare that addresses our concerns,” the letter continues. “… If you already switched plans and would like to re-enroll in your UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan, you still have time to do that.”

A spokesperson for UnitedHealthcare, a Minnetonka-based for-profit insurer, described the new agreement as a “multi-year contract that ensures continued, uninterrupted network access to the health system’s hospitals, facilities and its physicians” for those enrolled in the company’s group retiree and dual special needs Medicare Advantage plans, employer-sponsored commercial plans and the insurer’s Medicaid community plan of Wisconsin.

Alarmed by the possibility their retirees would lose hospital access, the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners and St. Paul school board voted early last month to dig deep into reserve accounts to buy supplementary insurance, intended to keep access to HealthPartners sites, albeit at higher premiums.

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter at the time rejected the prospect of paying another $1.5 million for “Medigap” coverage.

“The city doesn’t have the $1.5 million these corporations are demanding at the eleventh hour to stop blocking our retirees from the doctors they’ve trusted for years,” Carter said in a statement Oct. 14. “This is a fight between two of the largest health care systems in the state; they must find a solution that releases our retirees and taxpayers from their crossfire.”