Attention Patients with UHC, UMR, and Golden Rule Insurance Plans
Effective 9/22/22 we will be officially out of network with UHC plans and their affiliates (UMR and Golden Rule.) If you have UHC as your secondary to Medicare this does NOT affect you. See letter below from our owner Richard Gardner
Dear valued patients with UHC insurance,
After several months of attempting to negotiate our rates with UHC we have been unable to get a rate increase for the services we provide. In full transparency, I can say that our costs to deliver physical therapy to clients with UHC is greater than the amount we collect per session. While we love serving people, we cannot continue to serve when we are losing money with every session. It would be the equivalent of buying a burger for $6 that cost a restaurant $8 to make. We have attempted to explain this to UHC but they refuse to budge. It is absurd how the most profitable health insurance company, which collected over 17 billion dollars in profits last year, refuses to negotiate for a win/win scenario. In addition they pay larger hospital based groups significantly more than small private practices. I fully believe UHC achieves that profit margin by underpaying providers, denying service to their members, and raising YOUR monthly premiums/deductibles/copayments.
If you are unhappy with this result you have a few areas to express concern.
- If you get your health insurance through your company, then contact your HR and express your concern.
- Call UHC customer service line on the back of your insurance card and express your disappointment in how they conduct business
Lastly, just because we no longer will accept UHC does not mean you cannot be our patient. We can look into your out of network benefits or do our cash pay options. This decision did not come easy. Several wonderful clients we serve have UHC. We enjoy serving clients and helping people. That is where our heart is at. However, in today’s environment of higher cost and needing to ensure Specialized Physical Therapy continues to provide the best physical therapy services in NWA we had to make this decision. If you have questions or concerns please talk to me or email me at rgardner@ptnwa.com.
Sincerely,
Richard Gardner, PT, DPT
