New York City-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and UnitedHealthcare have reached a multi-year agreement that ensures the health system will remain in network for commercial members.
Memorial Sloan Kettering and UnitedHealthcare confirmed the deal was reached July 1, the same day a previous coverage agreement was set to expire.
“The new agreement, effective today, includes market-aligned rate adjustments consistent with those of other National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers in Manhattan,” Memorial Sloan Kettering said in a July 1 news release.
There was no interruption of care for UnitedHealthcare members at the health system.
MSK and UnitedHealthcare playing chicken. UnitedHealthcare flinched first.
Sloan does very important work and should be lauded for it (e.g. their ai initiatives relative to pathology and blood cancers are potentially paradigm shifting) and many cancers that were once a death sentence are now managed due to the work and research of places like Sloan. sadly cancer is big business. When bioethics / COI and Environmental Health and Safety EHS issues are rightfully brought forth, Sloan has a history of merely conjuring and synchronizing its thinly veiled cover stories, conducting its own investigation(s) and dismissing legitimate concerns as being venial. A Chief Financial Officer of MSKCC has stated (paraphrased): "Sloan is … pursuing a systemic approach to reducing expenses and increasing revenues. … this effort involves … policy decisions that seek to strike a … balance between providing service and squandering resources. One example of this is discouraging terminally ill patients from seeking initial treatment or second opinions from the cancer center … the admission of such patients is counterproductive for a facility like Sloan-Kettering". Sloan received ~ 500 million cumulatively during the pandemic, subsequently purchased ~ 500 million worth of prime Manhattan real estate, and terminated ~ 300 employees. Weren't people prosecuted for purchasing real estate with Covid moneys? Weren't Covid moneys meant to stave off job loss? Everyone wants Sloan to be our hero. We just want their moral compass to be calibrated correctly, their facilities (safety) anomalies to be held to a minimum, and addressed when appropriate.