Published on April 1, 2025 at 5:35 pm
Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
Nearly 10,000 people across St. Johns and Flagler counties will have reduced health care costs now that UF Health Flagler has reached a hospital-insurer agreement with Aetna Inc.
The hospital announced Tuesday that it will be back in network with the Connecticut-based insurance company. UF Health Flagler was out of network for Aetna users for eight months.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
“We are pleased to announce that we have come to fair and acceptable terms with Aetna for commercial and Medicare Advantage products for our hospital and physician group,” UF Health St. Johns Chief Medical Officer Dr. Huson Gilberstadt said in a statement.
Aetna is the third-largest health insurance provider at UF Health Flagler behind Florida Blue and United Healthcare.
The hospital-insurer agreement will cover commercial and Medicare Advantage plans for services at UF Health Flagler. It also will cover services by UF Health physician groups in St. Johns and Flagler counties.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
Hospitals and insurance companies across America have engaged in protracted negotiations for medical reimbursement over the last two years as labor costs, inflationary pressure and the end of COVID funding from the federal government expired.
A February 2025 analysis from health care policy nonprofit KFF found that operating margins for hospitals have fluctuated between 2021 and 2023.
A separate analysis from health care consulting firm Kaufmann Hall in February of this year noted that hospitals witnessed improved financial performance in 2024, compared with 2023, in the 1,300 facilities it studied. However, it found that operational profitability in 2024 was below 2021 levels.
This means hospital systems, like UF Health, seek reliability in exactly how muchinsurance companies will reimburse them for services.
This was the first negotiation between UF Health Flagler and Aetna since the hospital system acquired Flagler Hospital in 2023.
UF Health expects to negotiate future hospital-insurer contracts for its entire system, which includes facilities in Gainesville, Jacksonville and St. Augustine as well as Leesburg, Ocala and The Villages.
This week’s agreement means Northeast Florida’s second-largest health care system has only one negotiation outstanding.
And, it’s a big one.
UF Health officials estimate between 75,000 and 100,000 people across the system have United insurance.
United has been an out of network for UF Health users since Sept. 1. UF Health says it received a counter offer from United in late March. The two sides are holding what the hospital calls good faith negotiations in an effort to end the seven-month impasse.
