Bloomington-based HealthPartners no longer will accept UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage plan at the end of the year, meaning some 30,000 senior patients will have to change medical providers or pick a different insurance plan.

HealthPartners says UnitedHealth has been denying insurance claims from the plan at a much higher rate — sometimes 10 times higher — than other insurers and forces unnecessary waits for medical care. Starting next year, HealthPartners won’t be making appointments with the insurer’s patients at all, even if they’re willing to pay much higher, out-of-network rates.

“It’s unusual for us to leave a health plan network. Unfortunately, after a year of negotiations, we’ve determined that we can no longer participate in the UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage network,” HealthPartners said in a letter to Medicare Advantage users.

UnitedHealthcare told the Pioneer Press they still hope to negotiate an agreement and that HealthPartners’ accusations are untrue.

“Unfortunately, HealthPartners seems intent on disrupting access to care for our Group Retiree members as part of its effort to secure significant rate increases that are not affordable or sustainable for our members,” spokesman Cole Manbeck said.

The affected patients, all either 65 or older or with a qualified disability, include around 2,300 retirees of St. Paul Public Schools.

“We are mostly in our 80s and healthcare is a big deal for us,” said John Brodrick, a retired teacher and school board member who survived quadruple bypass surgery. “I am worried about potentially not being accepted by HealthPartners as a member of UnitedHealth. … I don’t know if I’m going to have to find a new cardiologist on Jan. 1. These are all the questions that are up in the air right now.”

HealthPartners runs Regions Hospital in downtown St. Paul, the HealthPartners Clinic in the St. Paul Midway and Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater, among other Twin Cities hospitals, clinics and specialty centers.

St. Paul Public Schools said Friday that the district had no advance notice about the change.

“The district is working closely with the insurance providers to identify potential next steps. As soon as we have more information, the district will communicate with the impacted retirees about their options,” a district spokesperson said.

The HealthPartners letter suggests patients switch to a different insurance plan if they want to keep receiving care from HealthPartners. Medicare’s annual enrollment period runs Oct. 15 to Dec. 7.

Uncertainty for retirees

Brodrick said he still was on the school board a few years ago when UnitedHealth won the health contract for retirees with “a really low-ball bid,” and he made sure to ask if retirees would still be able to access HealthPartners services. “I was assured by the benefits department that was true,” he said Friday. “Whether that was written into the contract or not, I hope St. Paul Public Schools is looking into it. I was uneasy at the time, for a lot of different reasons.”

Retired teacher Roy Magnuson said part of the debacle dates to 2019, when the St. Paul Federation of Educators Local 28 switched insurers for active employees, dropping UnitedHealth in favor of a public employees insurance plan. As a result, other employee groups associated with the school district suddenly had less bargaining leverage with UnitedHealth.

The affected employees are retirees for whom the school district continues to pay part of their medical coverage.

“I’ve had three other people contact me,” Magnuson said Friday. “They’re old and they’ve stayed with their doctor. The contract was that UnitedHealth would honor out-of-network providers if the school district gave them the contract. The union pulled out on fairly short notice, which left all of the different bargaining units in a different spot.”

Brodrick on Friday called on the school district to take a firm, public position in the dispute between the two healthcare giants.

“The little guy always seems to get caught in the middle,” he said. “Healthcare is the elephant in the room of every home in America, but the big-wigs seem to rule.”

Related Articles

Can texting new parents to report their blood pressure help address maternal mortality? These doctors think so

‘An exciting time:’ Breakthroughs coming to treat and prevent hair loss

Health department confirms three more measles cases in metro

Recall of Boar’s Head deli meats announced during investigation of listeria outbreak

In the 10 states that didn’t expand Medicaid, 1.6M can’t afford health insurance

To close the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Celine Dion, standing under the Eiffel Tower, belted out her first live performance since the French-Canadian singer was diagnosed with stiff person syndrome.

She received a standing ovation at this year’s Grammys when she made a surprise appearance to present the final award. That was the beginning of a comeback, completed tonight.

Related Articles

Olympic Games: The happy place that helped St. Paul gymnast Suni Lee find peace

An ailing Olympic movement turns to Paris for salvation

Risking life and limb for glory: Olympic surf competition to be held on world’s ‘heaviest wave’

How is wave forecasting done and how does it impact the Paris Olympics surfing competition?

PHOTOS: Paris Olympics opening ceremony

Dion’s Olympics performance marks her return to performing after years. She was diagnosed with stiff person syndrome in late 2022, causing her to postpone a tour.

The rare neurological disorder causes rigid muscles and painful muscle spasms, which were affecting Dion’s ability to walk and sing. In June, at the premiere of the documentary “I Am: Celine Dion” she told The Associated Press that returning required therapy, “physically, mentally, emotionally, vocally.”

“So that’s why it takes a while. But absolutely why we’re doing this because I’m already a little bit back,” she said.

Will the MCU get back on its axis with “Deadpool & Wolverine?”

We have thoughts on that as well as about some indie films you need to check out, including “The Beast Within,” “Fresh Kills” and the documentary “Eno.”

Here’s our roundup.

“Deadpool & Wolverine”: What a bummer it’s been with the Marvel Cinematic Universe spinning out of control (“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “The Marvels” were DOA), with even diehard fans suffering from superhero burnout. The elixir to all the multiverse burnout arrives in the costumed form of this rude, raunchy and hard-R-rated Marvel resurrection of sorts. Director and co-screenwriter Shawn Levy’s MCU bad-boy matchup pits profane wisecracker Deadpool with brooding worrywart Wolverine, and resuscitates the gasping and splintered MCU. The reason it works that it has the right people attached – from stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman and on to Levy — who tones down the nauseating overuse of CGI that’s marred recent efforts and leans heavily into an irreverent midlife/existential crisis storyline concocted by a team of five (including Reynolds), which liberally ribs almost everything attached to it (20th Century Studios, Disney, “Gossip Girl,” Blake Lively, “Furiosa,” “The Proposal,” Jackman’s divorce and so on). The cameos — none of which should be revealed — pump things up even more so, to the approximate size of that eighth wonder of the world, Jackman’s biceps. (Impressive, Hugh. Impressive). Meanwhile, Emma Corrin gives one wicked turn as supervillain Cassandra Nova, the mind-manipulating twin sis of “X-Men’s” Charles Xavier. After Deadpool teams up with Wolverine (Why? I won’t tell you), the bickering duo are jettisoned off to the Void — a “Mad Max”-like post-apocalyptic junkyard where dead timelines waste away. Nova is the ruler there, and she loves control in every form, setting the stage for mayhem.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” throws a lot at us — including the awesome, over-the-top violent choreographed fights set to pop songs, and even the extra-juicy bit tagged on at the end  credits — and nearly all of it works. But what makes “Deadpool & Wolverine” the best Deadpool movie yet and the second best “Wolverine” film (James Mangold’s “Logan” still stands tallest) is how the union of two of the edgiest superheroes tempers the tendencies of each other, serving as a needed buffer between Deadpool’s barrage of double entendres and fourth-wall breaking asides and Wolverine’s relentless, gloomy tendency to beat himself up over and over again about past mistakes. United, they’re better and create something more sustainable and less monotonous, a game changer — if you will — that contributes in making “Deadpool & Wolverine”  one of the best, most satisfying and certainly adult roller-coaster rides of this summer. Details: 3½ stars out of 4; in theaters July 26 (with a scattering of screenings July 25).

“Fresh Kills”: Actor Jennifer Esposito hits the target with her electrifying directorial debut that reinvents and reinvigorates worn-out mobster tropes. Esposito co-stars as an ‘80s-’90s Staten Island mob wife/mom shouldering domestic duties and raising two close sisters (Emily Bader from Prime Video’s “My Lady Jane” and Odessa A’zion) while hubby profits from crime and murder. Esposito’s grasp of her multi-dimensional characters, their problems and the era in which they live, is dead-on perfect. Better yet, she gives us a rich portrait of what it’s like to be a girl and then a woman brought up in the shady, violent, macho world of Mafia madness. Sadly, after the film’s successful screening during the 2023 version of Cinequest, it never received a release in the Bay Area. Now you can rent this dynamite film. Details: 3½ stars; available on Fandango at Home, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Google Play and more..

“The Beast Within”: Alexander J. Farrell’s Gothic tale conjures a visually intoxicating world that’s both dark and thematically unsettling in unexpected ways. Drawing on “Beauty and the Beast,” even “Little Red Riding Hood,” this bold narrative debut takes a huge swing in its critical, closing minutes and it works — extremely well. Kit Harington of “Game of Thrones” gives a high-wire performance as Noah, a cursed dad from an indeterminate era living with a hyper-alert family deep in the U.K.’s remote woods. Noah is a gregarious, handsome guy, but on occasion needs to get chained up when a bad moon rises. His wife (Ashleigh Cummings) and her father (James Cosmo) do everything to ensure Noah will do no harm to 10-year-old Willow (Caoillinn Springall, handling a tough role with ease). “The Beast Within” is a supernaturally laced thriller, but seems as if came from a painful, dark personal place where the horrors are human and the wounds remain open forever. Details: 3 stars; in theaters July 26.

“Eno”: Often, documentaries about creative types gush about their subject. Not so, Gary Hustwit’s revolutionary mindblower about musician/producer Brian Eno and his hyperkinetic creative process. While David Byrne of the Talking Heads — a group the former Roxy Music member produced — weighs in, Hustwit’s approach avoids the use of talking heads and favors emulating the organic, free-flowing process of creating something changeable — akin to musical performances. This “generative” documentary is continually fluid and changes from one screening to the next. What could have been a confounding mess morphs into a brilliant plunge into the creative process of the tech-savvy Eno and what inspires the the influential artist (he loves nature) and how he allows the work he’s conceived grow up, move out and become its own vibrant entity. “Eno.” is intellectually stimulating, cinematically exciting and truly unique. Details: 4 stars; opens July 26 for a seven-day engagement at the Roxie, with each screening being different than the other.

“The Commandant’s Shadow”: Two families — one whose matriarch survived Auschwitz and the other that includes the elderly son of the commandant (Rodolph Hoss) that oversaw the extermination of more than a million Jews — get their stories told in Daniela Voker’s extraordinary look at the legacy of evil and how unfathomable acts continue to scar ensuing generations. Anyone who saw Jonathan Glazer’s award-winning “The Zone of Interest” will spot how that 2023 film so eerily replicated the Hoss family house featured here, which sat next door to a relentless killing machine. Voker bookends interviews with family members — some who remain in denial of who their father really was — with clips of Hoss’ trial, recollections from his autobiography and photos. Its most powerful moments occur when 87-year-old Hans Jurgen Hoss confronts the scope and scale of the extermination and realizes that his memories of how idyllic his childhood are faulty. Details: 3½ stars; available now on Max.

“Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam”: Fans of The Backstreet Boys and NSYNC will want to watch Netflix’s spill-the-tea three-part series on Lou Pearlman, and how the boy-band wiz built an empire out bad money culled from the longest running U.S. Ponzi scheme. “Dirty Pop” dusts in performance footage but it’s the voices of those who knew or worked with Pearlman (sorry, no Justin Timberlake) that fuel it. Fine tells the story well, except when he dumps in video of Pearlman and doctors it up so it appears the late businessman’s reading (a voice actor is used) excerpts from a book he co-authored. Even though “Dirty Pop” reveals upfront this is manipulated, its weirdness backfires and distracts from the story itself. Details: 2½ stars; drops July 24 on Netflix.

“The Fabulous Four”: There’s nothing wrong about wanting to make a goofy comedy about four 60ish/70ish female chums reuniting for a wedding in Key West. But there’s really not much right about “The Fabulous Four,” a predictable slog built around wah-wah jokes, lame situations and an incredibly horrendous bit of lip syncing from Michael Bolton. The cast — Bette Midler, Susan Sarandon, Megan Mullally and Sheryl Lee Ralph – deserve better, and the beginning promises there will be one doozy of a cat fight since Sarandon’s workaholic, cat-lady Dr. Lousie Zebarski and Midler’s social-media addict Marilyn have been estranged for years over a dating kerfuffle. But the tired-out screenplay from Ann Marie-Allison and Jenna Milley even botches that gimme near the end. An obligatory song-and-dance number at the end comes feels tacked on, as if someone saw “Mama Mia!” and said bingo – let’s replicate that box-office crowd pleaser. Made me want to rewatch “Grace and Frankie” instead. Details: 1½ stars; in theaters July 26.

“The Girl in the Pool”: Freddie Prinze Jr.’s growing-more-desperate performance as a cheating family man who stuffs his murdered mistress’ bloody body into a pool storage bin minutes before his surprise birthday party gets sprung keeps this dark comedic thriller afloat. What manages to sink it happens when the screenplay takes a radical tonal shift that doesn’t produce the emotional punch it thinks it’s earned. For the first two thirds, “The Girl in the Pool” leans into genre inclinations and gives us loads of suspects: a drunken, flirtatious invitee who paws at Tom’s (Prinze Jr.) and his angry wife Kirsten’s (Monica Potter) model-looking son; a suspicious father-in-law (Kevin Pollak) and so on. The red herrings don’t net much of anything, except making us realize that Prinze Jr. and Potter (seen together in the 2001 rom-com “Head Over Heels”) deserve better than this. Details: 2 stars; opens July 26 in theaters and also available to rent.

Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.