Payer Page · 2026
Data verified · June 21, 2026
Negotiating with United— Benchmarking Fee Schedules & Reimbursement Rates 2026
UnitedHealthcare is the largest single commercial payer in the U.S. — a national insurer with one of the broadest provider networks and the most extensive plan portfolio across employer, individual, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid markets. PayerPrice consolidates every United schedule into one searchable platform, so you can walk into your next contract negotiation with verifiable numbers.
UnitedHealthcare
National · 50-state coverage
Plans tracked
Providers (NPIs)
Rate observations
MRF files parsed
1 national file
Last refresh
On this page
United Overview
UnitedHealthcare, at a glance
UnitedHealthcare is the largest single commercial payer in the U.S. — a national insurer with one of the broadest provider networks and the most extensive plan portfolio across employer, individual, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid markets.
United's MRFs are massive but consolidated. Negotiated rates vary materially by state, plan family, and provider contract — particularly between commercial-PPO, Exchange, and Medicare Advantage products. PayerPrice surfaces the multiple per row so a single contract negotiation can target the exact plan-and-market combinations that drive your revenue.
United reimbursement varies significantly by plan type, provider contract, and geographic location. Always benchmark at the licensee + plan + market level — not the parent-brand level.
Quick Facts
SOURCE: PAYERPRICE · Updated monthly
| Payer Type | National commercial payer (incl. Optum, Rocky Mountain, Health Plan of Nevada, Sierra Health) |
| Total Membership | |
| Market Share | |
| Plan Types | HMO PPO POS EPO Medicare Advantage Medicaid Exchange |
| Plans Tracked in PayerPrice | |
| Data Source | Machine Readable Files (TiC Rule) |
| Data Freshness | Updated monthly |
Negotiation Playbook
How to negotiate better United reimbursement rates
A four-step playbook used by managed-care leaders preparing for United contract renewals — from raw rate pull to walking into the negotiation room with a defensible ask.
Step 1
Benchmark your current rates
Pull every paid claim against your current contract and compare line-by-line to the in-market 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles for the same CPT × NPI × Tax ID combination.
Step 2
Identify your top 20 codes
Surface the codes that drive 80% of your revenue with this payer. Negotiating uniformly across 5,000 codes is a fantasy; negotiating sharply on 20 is a strategy.
Step 3
Compare against competitors
Use PayerPrice to see exactly what this payer pays the practice down the street for the same code. Same payer, same plan, same market — different reimbursement.
Step 4
Build the negotiation case
Walk in with a tight, three-page deck: top codes, percentile position, peer rates, and the exact ask. Payers respond to specificity.
37%
of physician groups never negotiate their payer contracts.
2024 Payer Scorecard, Physicians Practice. For a mid-size group, even a 2–3% increase from a heavily-represented payer translates to $500K+ in annual revenue.
See our full payer contract negotiations guide for the deep dive.
Reimbursement Rates · National Avg.
United rates for the most-searched CPT codes
National-average in-network reimbursement for high-volume United CPT codes, benchmarked against the corresponding Medicare allowed amount. Rates pulled from United machine readable files on June 21, 2026.
| CPT | Description | Category | United National Avg. | Medicare Benchmark | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 99214 | Office Visit, Established (Moderate) | E&M | View rates | ||
| 99213 | Office Visit, Established (Low) | E&M | View rates | ||
| 99215 | Office Visit, Established (High) | E&M | View rates | ||
| 90837 | Psychotherapy, 60 min | Psychiatry | View rates | ||
| 90834 | Psychotherapy, 45 min | Psychiatry | View rates | ||
| 90791 | Psychiatric Diagnostic Evaluation | Psychiatry | View rates | ||
| 70450 | CT Head/Brain without Contrast | Radiology | View rates | ||
| 73721 | MRI Lower Extremity Joint | Radiology | View rates | ||
| 45378 | Diagnostic Colonoscopy | Surgery | View rates |
ⓘ Rates shown are national averages; actual United reimbursement varies by licensee, plan, geographic location, and provider contract. For provider-level detail by NPI or Tax ID, run a free sample report.
United Machine Readable Files
The raw data is public. Reading it isn't.
Machine readable files (MRFs) are digital files that every commercial payer is legally required to publish every month under the Transparency in Coverage Rule, effective July 2022. Each file contains every in-network negotiated rate and every out-of-network allowed amount for every contracted provider.
PayerPrice downloads and parses United's MRFs monthly, transforming billions of rows into clean, searchable, structured rate data — joined to NPI, Tax ID, plan, and market.
Skip the raw files — search United rates instantlyrows parsed monthly
Frequently asked
United fee schedules — questions providers ask us
A United fee schedule is the contracted reimbursement rate that UnitedHealthcare pays an in-network provider for a specific service, identified by CPT, HCPCS, Revenue Code, or MS-DRG. PayerPrice consolidates schedules from every United release into one searchable view.
For United contract leads
See exactly what United pays your competitors.
Get a free sample of your Unitedfee schedule — benchmarked against the licensees and peers in your market — and find out if you're being underpaid.
Your sample includes
Your top 20 CPT codes by paid volume
United national average rates per code
Your position vs. the 50th / 75th / 90th percentile
Peer practice rates in your zip code (anonymized)
Year-over-year drift on your top codes