UnitedHealth and other big insurers cut their physician networks to boost profits

If you are enrolled in a UnitedHealth Group Medicare Advantage plan, you are likely to see the number of in-network providers drop dramatically next year, reports Luke Sullivan for HEALTH CARE un-covered. If you’re in a CVS, Cigna or other Medicare Advantage plans run by a big insurer, you might also see a dramatic cut of in-network providers. Be sure to check during this Medicare Annual Open Enrollment Period and consider all your options for 2026.

The good news is that if you are in a Medicare Advantage plan whose provider network is being cut significantly, you likely have a guaranteed right to buy Medicare supplemental health insurance or Medigap if you switch to Traditional Medicare. Traditional Medicare gives you easy access to most doctors and hospitals across the United States, without having to face burdensome prior authorization processes or inappropriate delays and denials of care that you face in Medicare Advantage.

UnitedHealth just announced that it is cutting thousands of doctors from its networks in order to boost profits. UnitedHealth’s $4.3 billion in profits in the last three months were apparently not as high as it wanted. Cutting provider networks and denying care inappropriately have helped UnitedHealth to become the third richest company in the US right now.

UnitedHealth currently controls about 10 percent of all the physicians in the US, after buying up scores of physician practices. It’s now the largest Medicare Advantage provider and has 2,700 subsidiaries!

Keep in mind that when corporate health insurers talk about promoting “value-based care,” which insurers do all the time, they are talking about improving their company’s value, not value to their more than 45 million enrollees. They maximize their value through raising premiums and out-of-pocket costs and cutting benefits, and that’s what they do.

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