I’ve made the difficult decision to stop accepting UnitedHealthcare from new patients (while continuing to accept UnitedHealthcare plans from established patients). This decision is heavily influenced by a change in all my patients’ UnitedHealthcare (UHC) plans in 2024 that enacted an annual 30-visit maximum for all habilitative services (speech & language treatment, occupational therapy, & physical therapy). On top of that, when I sent records to establish medical necessity for each of my patients who had reached their maximums last fall UHC didn’t approve the remaining visits for the year for a handful of patients – I had to resubmit the same paperwork every. single. week. for those patients. All of this is in addition to the fact that UHC has failed to respond to my multiple requests over the last couple of years to renegotiate my contract, which currently has them paying me $70 for each and every appointment, including evaluations (the other plans are paying me more than $90 for treatment appointments and up to $250 for evaluations).
To Summarize:
- All my patients’ UHC plans enacted a 30-visit maximum for OT/PT/SLP treatment in 2024 (that covers only half of the year for 95% of my patients).
- For a handful of patients I had to resubmit records that proved medical necessity every. single. week. for the last couple months of 2024.
- UHC has failed to respond to my multiple requests to renegotiate my contract with them, resulting in them paying me 70%-28% of what the other plans are paying me for the exact. same. services.
I regret that I cannot afford these circumstances.