Stellaris Health Network and UnitedHealthcare Announce New Multi-Year Agreement

ARMONK, N.Y., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Stellaris Health Network and UnitedHealthcare have renewed their network relationship with a multi-year agreement that will continue to provide UnitedHealthcare's commercial, Medicare and Medicaid plan participants, and UnitedHealthcare's Oxford health plan customers access to care at Stellaris Health Network's hospitals and medical facilities.

Stellaris Health Network facilities include Lawrence Hospital Center, Northern Westchester Hospital, Phelps Memorial Hospital Center, White Plains Hospital Center, and employed physicians and ancillary centers.  The system provides quality, community-based care for residents of Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Dutchess, northern Bronx and Fairfield counties.

"The continued relationship with UnitedHealthcare is critical to our financial stability and even more critical to the thousands of UnitedHealthcare plan participants we treat at our hospitals," said Arthur Nizza, President and CEO, Stellaris Health Network.  "UnitedHealthcare is a good partner for us, and we're glad to be a participating provider in its network."

"Our goal is to offer our health plan customers local access to the broadest network of hospitals and doctors, and having Stellaris Health hospitals and facilities in our network does just that," said William Golden, CEO, UnitedHealthcare of New York. "We look forward to continuing our relationship with Stellaris Health as we work together to provide quality, cost-effective health care to the people we serve."

UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) company, serves more than 3 million New York state residents with a health care provider network statewide of more than 42,000 physicians and 200  hospitals and medical facilities.

About UnitedHealthcare

UnitedHealthcare (www.unitedhealthcare.com) provides a full spectrum of consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services to individuals, public sector employers and businesses of all sizes, including more than half of the Fortune 100 companies.  The company organizes access to quality, affordable health care services on behalf of approximately 25 million individual consumers, contracting directly with more than 600,000 physicians and care professionals and 5,000 hospitals to offer them broad, convenient access to services nationwide.  UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company.

About Stellaris Health Network

Based in Armonk, NY and founded in 1996, HealthStar Network, Inc. (dba Stellaris Health Network) is the corporate parent of Lawrence Hospital Center (Bronxville, NY), Northern Westchester Hospital (Mount Kisco, NY) Phelps Memorial Hospital Center (Sleepy Hollow, NY), and White Plains Hospital Center (White Plains, NY). In addition to the network of hospitals, Stellaris provides ambulance and municipal paramedic services to Westchester County, New York through Westchester Emergency Medical Services. With nearly $795 million in combined revenue and 1,100 in-patient beds, Stellaris Hospitals account for over a third of the acute care bed capacity in Westchester County. It is one of the largest area employers, with over 5,000 employees and approximately 1,000 voluntary physicians on staff. The Stellaris Hospitals provide multidisciplinary acute care services as well as a range of community based services such as hospice, home health, behavioral health and physical rehabilitation. As Stellaris pursues new programs and joint ventures, it will continue to evolve as the region's leading health care system, dedicated to preserving high quality, community-based care for residents of Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Dutchess, northern Bronx, and Fairfield Counties.

SOURCE Stellaris Health Network