A major shift in local healthcare access as CarolinaEast Medical Center prepares to drop two major insurance networks.
Starting July 1st, the New Bern hospital will no longer be in-network with UnitedHealthcare and Blue Cross Blue Shield Medicare Advantage plans. Hospital officials are calling the current payment policies "unsustainable" due to excessive denials and reimbursement delays.
This move follows recent, similar departures by ECU Health, leading to a sharp rebuke from Congressman Greg Murphy.
Murphy, a physician himself, accused insurers of prioritizing profits over patients, citing a tragic case where a local man’s brain tumor went untreated due to insurance delays.
Murphy is blasting UnitedHealthcare, accusing the insurance giant of putting "profits above patients" in Eastern North Carolina. The Greenville physician shared a harrowing account from a local neurosurgeon regarding a patient with declining brain function.
According to the report, UnitedHealthcare denied multiple requests for imaging, only for an eventual MRI to reveal an untreatable glioblastoma that had spread during the delay. The neurosurgeon says the man likely could have lived for years with earlier treatment.
Murphy, who recently underwent his own brain surgery, is now urging residents and employers to drop the provider immediately.
While the hospital will be out-of-network, CarolinaEast Physicians—the system’s outpatient practices—will remain in-network for now. Patients are urged to check their coverage before the July deadline.
