Avina Women's Care will remain in UnitedHealthcare's network after the two sides finalized a new multiyear agreement just days before the existing contract was set to expire on Wednesday. The deal preserves in-network access for patients enrolled in UnitedHealthcare employer-provided health plans, sparing pregnant patients and others mid-treatment from a scramble to find new coverage.
Deal Comes Together Ahead Of Deadline
Avina Women's Care said it reached the agreement with UnitedHealthcare and would remain in-network, according to NBC4 WCMH-TV. The agreement maintains network access specifically for people enrolled in UnitedHealthcare's employer-sponsored commercial plans, and it prevents what could have been a disruption for Avina patients beginning Oct. 1. UnitedHealthcare said the agreement is meant to provide uninterrupted access to quality, affordable health care for people served in central Ohio.
The resolution comes after weeks of uncertainty. Avina's prior agreement with UnitedHealthcare had been scheduled to end Oct. 1, and as recently reported by the same outlet, the two companies had not yet reached terms to keep Avina's OB-GYN and primary care providers in-network. Part of the sticking point, per that earlier report, was that Avina had been seeking a price increase of nearly 18 percent over three years for care covered under UnitedHealthcare's commercial plans.
Patients With Pregnancies And Ongoing Care Were On Edge
Patients with pregnancies, scheduled procedures or ongoing treatments faced real uncertainty about whether their care would still be covered if it extended beyond the original contract deadline. While the standoff continued, Avina had been directing patients to ask UnitedHealthcare whether they qualified for continuity of care, a protection that could have temporarily preserved in-network benefits had the two sides failed to reach a deal. Avina notified patients that an agreement had finally been reached, closing out that window of anxiety.
Avina Women's Care has a location in Gahanna and serves Grove City patients. That means the contract dispute had the potential to affect UnitedHealthcare members who rely on Avina for everything from routine checkups to labor and delivery.
Part Of A Broader Pattern Of Insurer Standoffs
Avina's brush with a network exit fits a pattern playing out elsewhere as UnitedHealthcare renegotiates contracts with providers nationwide. In North Carolina, WakeMed and UnitedHealthcare signed a new multiyear agreement for employer-sponsored commercial plans that restored in-network access to WakeMed hospitals, with that contract taking effect Oct. 15, 2026, according to WRAL. In Oklahoma, UnitedHealthcare and Norman Regional reached a similar agreement keeping hospitals and providers in-network for members across several commercial, Medicare Advantage and other plan types, per News9.com. In Missouri, SSM Health and UnitedHealthcare signed a multiyear agreement covering more than 140,000 UnitedHealthcare-covered patients statewide, as detailed by SSM Health.
For Avina patients wondering what continuity-of-care protections would have meant had the deal fallen through, Ohio law offers some limited detail, though it does not address this specific case. Under Ohio Revised Code section 3923.38, continuation of coverage need not include dental, vision care or other benefits provided in addition to hospital, surgical or major medical benefits. A related provision, Ohio Revised Code section 1751.13, notes that required provision of covered health care services for an enrollee receiving necessary inpatient hospital care may be limited in accordance with state law and may also be capped at 30 days after a health insuring corporation's insolvency or discontinuance of operations.
With the new multiyear agreement now finalized, Avina patients enrolled in UnitedHealthcare's employer-sponsored commercial plans can expect uninterrupted in-network access moving forward. The exact length of the new contract and its full financial terms have not been disclosed.
