Mount Sinai and Anthem announced a three-year agreement after months of healthcare disruptions for thousands of patients. The agreement, announced on on April 13, 2026, reportedly restores Mount Sinai hospitals to in-network status retroactively to January 1, 2026 and affiliated facilities as of March 4, 2026.

The press releases from the parties do not tell us much.

From Mount Sinai:

“Update as of April 13, 2026: Mount Sinai is pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with Anthem that restores in-network access for all Mount Sinai physicians, hospitals, and services, effective immediately.”

From Anthem:

“The agreement keeps Mount Sinai care accessible for Anthem members and reflects both organizations’ commitment to delivering quality care while helping control healthcare costs for New York workers, families, employers, and taxpayers. It also updates reimbursement models to reward quality and outcomes while maintaining strong safeguards to support accurate billing and payment. ‘Most importantly, we were able to work with Mount Sinai to protect our members’ access to care while keeping costs as low as possible for the families, employers, and taxpayers who pay for healthcare.’ said Victor DeStefano, Commercial President of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New York. ‘We appreciate the hard work by both teams that made this agreement possible, and we look forward to serving New Yorkers together for years to come.’ The new contract includes responsible price increases that make cost trends more predictable over time, as well as new value-based care models that connect payment to health outcomes improvement. It also preserves important protections that help ensure hospital bills are accurate, care is delivered in the appropriate setting, and healthcare cost trends track more closely to inflation and workers’ wages.”

This “value-based model,” which links payments to health outcomes, has become more and more prevalent, leading hospital and practice networks to emphasize management of illness and conditions to prevent re-hospitalization and to lead to healthier patients.

Of course, as I stated in April’s article, these contracts are opaque. We have no way of knowing how they define “responsible price increases” or “appropriate settings,” or “health outcomes improvement.”  We can only hope this contract between two giants will start to bend the cost curve for New Yorkers.

Meanwhile, having Mount Sinai hospitals, doctors and facilities back in-network under Anthem is good news for 802 health plan participants.

As always, Local 802 members who have questions about their coverage can contact the Local 802 health fund office at hbp@local802afm.org or (212) 245-4802.