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UnitedHealthcare delays policy to stop paying for some ER care

FILE - In this June 15, 2018 file photo, United Healthcare correspondence is seen in North Andover, Mass. UnitedHealth Group's on-and-off relationship with the Affordable Care Act's health insurance marketplaces is heating up again. The nation's largest health insurance provider is looking to jump back into a market it largely fled a few years ago after suffering huge losses. Company leaders said Wednesday, April 15, 2020, that they started thinking about a potential expansion before the coronavirus pandemic hit, and they are still reviewing markets. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
FILE - In this June 15, 2018 file photo, United Healthcare correspondence is seen in North Andover, Mass. UnitedHealth Group's on-and-off relationship with the Affordable Care Act's health insurance marketplaces is heating up again. The nation's largest health insurance provider is looking to jump back into a market it largely fled a few years ago after suffering huge losses. Company leaders said Wednesday, April 15, 2020, that they started thinking about a potential expansion before the coronavirus pandemic hit, and they are still reviewing markets. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

By Christopher Snowbeck / Star Tribune 3 min read

UnitedHealthcare is putting on hold a new policy that would have stopped payments for non-emergency health care provided in ERs beginning next month.

Doctors and hospitals strenuously objected to the plan, with emergency physicians saying the change created risks for patients while threatening progress in the fight against COVID-19.

The feedback prompted the nations’s biggest health insurer to delay implementation “until at least the end of the national public health emergency period,” UnitedHealthcare said in a statement.

“We will use this time to continue to educate consumers, customers and providers on the new policy and help ensure that people visit an appropriate site of service for non-emergency care needs,” the insurer said.

The policy delay is a “temporary reprieve for patients, and we urge its full and permanent reversal,” said Rick Pollack, president and chief executive of the American Hospital Association.