UnitedHealthcare, St. Luke’s Health System reunite after contract squabble [The Kansas City Star, Mo.]

Jun. 9--Two of the biggest players in Kansas City health care -- the St. Luke's Health System and UnitedHealthcare -- are getting back together.

The 11-hospital system and the insurance company announced Tuesday they have signed a three-year contract that takes effect Sept. 1. The two organizations parted company in 2009 after a public dispute over how much United should pay St. Luke's for its services.

The new contract will give United's commercial and Medicare health plans access to St. Luke's physicians and facilities. The organizations will collaborate on performance-based payment programs and health information technology.

Neither side would discuss the financial terms of their deal except to call it a "mutually beneficial agreement."

The reputation of St. Luke's Hospital near the Country Club Plaza and its sister hospitals makes it a sought-after provider for insurance plans and their customers. United's large market share -- more than 469,000 beneficiaries in western Missouri and in Kansas -- furnishes hospitals with large numbers of patients.

"With the addition of St. Luke's, we now have the most comprehensive system" in Kansas City, United spokesman Gregory Thompson said.

In July 2008, after a year and a half of trying to come to an agreement, the nonprofit St. Luke's said it was done negotiating and would stop accepting United benefits after Feb. 28, 2009.

St. Luke's even bought a newspaper advertisement to alert the business community that its relationship with United was ending.

At the time negotiations broke down in 2008, United officials said the hospital system had been asking the insurer for a 22 percent bump in reimbursements in 2009 and an aggregate increase of 54 percent compounded over the next four years.

"We have consistently sought what we consider a fair and equitable relationship," spokesman John Leifer of St. Luke's said Tuesday. "We have finally found a balancing point."

Leifer said the number of United customers who will seek care at St. Luke's "will certainly be substantive."

"We enjoyed a very strong year last year without United," Leifer said. "We anticipate an even stronger, more robust year ahead."

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