WNY urology practice plans ‘fresh start’ outside Kaleida, with insurance questions ahead

A major Western New York urology and cancer care provider is separating from Kaleida Health, rebranding its business and negotiating new contracts with health insurers.

Effective Jan. 13, 2027, Western New York Urology Associates providers will transition to Great Lakes Urology, Cancer Care of Western New York providers will transition to Great Lakes Oncology and providers with Pediatric Urology of Western New York will transition to Great Lakes Pediatric Urology, according to a recent notice the practice’s president, Dr. K. Kent Chevli, sent to patients.

The practice, which has 500 employees, 11 locations and covers every hospital in the region, serves Western New York’s eight counties and sees 120,000 patients a year, including about 25,000 people diagnosed with prostate cancer or other urologic cancers. The practice, with decades of history in the area, has 39 doctors and around 35 nurse practitioners and physician assistants, Chevli said.

Chevli said the decision to separate from Kaleida was “mutually agreed upon.” Kaleida in 2015 announced it acquired Western New York Urology Associates and Cancer Care of WNY, businesses that were integrated into the health system but retained separate identities.

Kaleida confirmed in a statement that the practice’s physicians have chosen to transition back to private practice under Great Lakes. Kaleida said it will continue “to work with the physicians to meet their and their patients’ needs at each of our Kaleida Health facilities.”

“It made sense at this time to go in our own directions,” said Chevli, a physician at Western New York Urology since 1994. “Kaleida has its own set of challenges, and we thought going independent would be a better direction for us.”

Insurance challenges

One of the biggest challenges of the practice going independent – for the business and its patients – is the need to negotiate new contracts with health insurers.

Read the letter: What WNY Urology Associates sent to patients

Western New York Urology Associates sent a notice to patients in September 2026, informing them that the practice was negotiating new contracts with insurance companies for 2027.

So far, the practice has confirmed participation for 2027 with Univera Healthcare, traditional Medicare and traditional Medicaid, according to the notice to patients. The partnership with Univera, the notice said, will help “bring value-based care to our patients.” In healthcare, value-based agreements tie reimbursements to patient outcomes and cost efficiency rather than the volume of services delivered.

The practice has reached out to all other health insurers and hopes to enter into agreements with them before the transition occurs .

“Univera was the first one to see and embrace it wholeheartedly, and they've gone in with total commitment,” Chevli said. “So we just need the other insurance companies to follow suit. We don't want to treat patients differently based on the different types of insurances.”

Kent Chevli MD.jpg

Dr. K. Kent Chevli is president of Western New York Urology Associates.

Chevli said the practice is in active discussions with Highmark Western and Northeastern New York and Independent Health but is further away from deals with the large, national insurers.

“There’s a lot more work to be done. In all honesty, we’re not there yet,” he said. “The national insurers have been somewhat disappointing, and I don’t know how that is going to end. We very well may end up not being able to participate with some of those insurance companies because they don’t want to make the changes necessary.”

Highmark spokesperson Amber Hartmann said the insurer is working with the practice to establish a new agreement to enable Highmark members to continue accessing its physicians and services. Hartmann said Highmark’s current agreement is in effect through Jan. 1, so members can continue receiving care from Western New York Urology Associates until then.

“Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield remains committed to ensuring members have access to high-quality care and is focused on reaching an agreement that supports continued access to Western New York Urology Associates for the members we serve,” she said.

Independent Health spokesperson Frank J. Sava said the insurer appreciates the urology practice’s interest in value-based reimbursement arrangements that recognize quality and efficiency. Independent Health, Sava said, has value-based agreements with many physicians and hospitals in its network and last year provided more than $35 million in incentive payments to participating providers that met or exceeded quality benchmarks.

“Because value-based agreements are highly complex and require thoughtful collaboration, the process can take several months to complete,” Sava said. “We remain committed to working constructively with Great Lakes Urology toward a new agreement that recognizes their financial priorities while fulfilling our responsibility to members and employers to keep high-quality health coverage affordable.”

Chevli said the practice sent the notice to patients ahead of open enrollment and is encouraging patients to reach out to their insurance companies to request the health plans participate with the urology practice.

Focused on quality,

access and cost

Chevli considers going independent and rebranding as a “completely fresh start.”

He believes the practice can change the way it operates and, in doing so, can improve quality, boost access and reduce cost.

“I think the cost of healthcare is unsustainable,” he said. “I don't think any of us are saying that the insurance premiums are not high enough. We need to do it differently. The way we have been doing it not only costs more, but the health of the community has not gotten better, and we have several methods of reducing cost, improving quality and maintaining access, frankly, to our doctors.”

To do so, Chevli said, the practice will need the partnership of the health insurers, which remains a work in progress.

But he said the practice is committed to serving the community in a value-based way.

As the practice was working to separate to Kaleida, Chevli said it also looked at other options such as partnering with other hospital systems or private equity.

“All those things, partnering with hospitals and especially with private equity, all that did was increase the cost of healthcare, and we did not want to do that,” he said. “We're committed to wanting to change the way we take care of patients.”

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