NewYork-Presbyterian and UnitedHealthcare are working against a new deadline in their long-running Medicare Advantage contract dispute. The two sides have extended in-network coverage while they negotiate, but that extension runs out September 30, 2026, and patients who use NewYork-Presbyterian’s hospitals and doctors under a UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan are being told what changes the next day if no new deal is signed. Two categories of members are excluded from that change altogether, and people already mid-treatment get a longer runway to finish care in network.
The September 30 Deadline and What Changes October 1
NewYork-Presbyterian’s own patient notice says the hospital system and UnitedHealthcare have agreed to extend current in-network coverage through September 30, 2026, while contract talks continue. If the two sides do not reach new terms by that date, the notice says Individual HMO, Individual POS and Group HMO UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans lose in-network status at NewYork-Presbyterian facilities starting October 1, 2026. The notice lists the facilities that dispute covers by name, including NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian Queens, NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester, NewYork-Presbyterian Hudson Valley Hospital, and NewYork-Presbyterian’s medical groups in Brooklyn, Hudson Valley, Queens and Westchester, along with affiliated sites such as Gracie Square Hospital, the Rogosin Institute and the Silvercrest Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation. That list covers most of the system’s hospital and outpatient footprint across New York City and its northern suburbs, so a member losing in-network status is not affected at a single site but across the network the notice describes. The notice, last updated August 27, 2026, does not describe a resolved contract; it frames the extension as a bridge while negotiations continue, and it does not explain which specific terms — rates, coverage rules or something else — remain unresolved between the two organizations.
What a network notice like this one does not answer: the September 30 contract cutoff tells a UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage member whether NewYork-Presbyterian stays in network, but it says nothing about how that plan’s total cost, drug coverage or doctor access stacks up against the other options open during Open Enrollment. Run that side-by-side comparison with The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit.
Who Keeps In-Network Access No Matter How Talks End
Not every UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage member tied to NewYork-Presbyterian is affected by the September 30 outcome. The hospital’s notice specifically excepts members holding an AARP Medicare Supplement (Medigap) policy, since those plans work alongside Original Medicare rather than through a Medicare Advantage network, and members enrolled in a Group Retiree PPO plan through a former employer’s UnitedHealthcare contract. Those two groups keep their current access to NewYork-Presbyterian regardless of whether the broader Individual and Group HMO contract lapses on October 1. The notice also says Individual policyholders and Group HMO members who do lose in-network status still retain some out-of-network benefit under their plan, though it does not put a dollar figure on what that reduced level of coverage pays toward a NewYork-Presbyterian bill.
The December 29 Continuity-of-Care Window for Patients in Active Treatment
Even if the contract lapses, the notice carves out patients who are already receiving care. It defines that group specifically as “patients undergoing an active course of treatment (inpatient or outpatient) before October 1, 2026,” who can continue receiving that scheduled care in network through December 29, 2026. Pregnant patients get a separate carve-out, covering care through delivery and the postpartum period. Those windows exist specifically so a member does not have to switch physicians or hospitals mid-course of treatment while the contract dispute is unresolved, but they do not extend past their stated end dates if no new agreement follows.
The Two Contact Points NewYork-Presbyterian Directs Members To
The notice does not offer a way to check an individual plan’s status on the page itself. Instead, it tells members with general Medicare questions to “contact a Medicare representative by calling 1-800-633-4227” or to compare plans at medicare.gov’s plan-finder tool, while members asking about UnitedHealthcare’s specific continuity-of-care coverage are told to “call the UnitedHealthcare Member Services phone number found on the back of your insurance card.” Group retirees are pointed to a third channel, their former employer or plan sponsor, since those Group Retiree PPO arrangements are negotiated separately from the individual market contract now nearing its September 30 deadline. None of the three contact points offers a same-day answer on whether a deal will be reached by September 30; each is built to route a specific kind of question, benefits eligibility, continuity-of-care coverage, or a retiree plan’s separate terms, rather than to forecast the outcome of the underlying negotiation.
A Familiar Standoff: NewYork-Presbyterian’s Last Near-Miss With UnitedHealthcare
This is not the first time the two organizations have pushed a Medicare Advantage deadline to the brink. UnitedHealthcare told members in October 2025 that NewYork-Presbyterian could go out of network effective January 1, 2026, before the two sides worked out the extension that has since been pushed to the current September 30 date. The current notice from NewYork-Presbyterian is the clearest public record of where the renewed negotiation stands as the September 30 date approaches.
Reading a Hospital Network Notice Against the Rest of a Medicare Advantage Plan
Knowing the Sept. 30 deadline and the Dec. 29 continuity-of-care date tells someone enrolled in a UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan what happens to hospital access, but a network notice from one hospital system is not the same as reviewing the full Annual Notice of Change a plan sends for next year, which can also shift costs and drug coverage.
The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit pairs a cost calculator spreadsheet that compares plans on cost, drugs and doctors with a provider call script for confirming a hospital’s network status directly.
See how the provider call script and cost comparison line up against a plan’s Annual Notice of Change in The 2027 Medicare Open Enrollment Decision Kit.
This article was produced with AI assistance and checked against the primary sources linked above.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
