The dispute is over: Continuum Health Partners and UnitedHealthcare signed a new contract Wednesday night after months of sometimes tense negotiations. The contract is for all product lines, including commercial, Medicare and Medicaid, and is effective retroactively to March 1.”We’re pleased with the outcome,” said Ruth Levin, Continuum’s chief negotiator on the contracts.The contract dispute dates back to December, and Continuum dropped from UnitedHealthcare’s network on Jan. 1. United and the health system—which includes Beth Israel Medical Center, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, Long Island College Hospital and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary—failed to agree on new contract terms over reimbursement and other issues.On one hand, United was trying to hold down the cost of premiums. In January, a spokeswoman for the insurer said it had “a responsibility to our employers and health plan participants to balance affordability and access.”Ms. Levin, who is Continuum’s corporate senior vice president in charge of managed care, wrote to providers in December to explain the dispute. “United took the position that if we didn’t agree to their language terms, they were not interested in further discussions,” she wrote. She said Continuum would try to obtain “the necessary protections against potential abuse of underpayments, denials, unreasonably burdensome and costly administrative requirements, etc.—which is missing in their proposed language.”The dispute escalated in January, when Continuum filed a request for an injunction in Manhattan Supreme Court to stop United from “improperly removing” some 1,500 Continuum doctors from United’s networks.All the bickering over a contract is now history, with the hospital chain and United agreeing on undisclosed terms. http://www.easytoinsureme.com/united-health-one.html