Union Push Ends Aetna-Montefiore Standoff
A hard push by TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano has broken a contractual stalemate between insurance carrier, Aetna, and Montefiore Health System, an 11-hospital mega-health provider in the Bronx and the Hudson Valley. The two parties signed the new contract on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018.
Montefiore had threatened to cease accepting Aetna unless the carrier agreed to a new schedule of payments. The standoff could have impacted use of the hospital’s many facilities for nearly 7,000 Local 100 members.
In August, President Utano called a meeting with the MTA and Aetna officials at Union Headquarters to inform the carrier that the loss of Montefiore’s services was unacceptable to the union.
Utano said of the settlement: “I am happy that this dispute has been settled, and that Local 100 members will continue to have full use of Montefiore’s services without interruption. Access to professional and convenient health services is essential to our members and their families.
This union would never have allowed our members to be shut out from services at such a major health care facility.”