In my experience, insurance companies have a system designed to discourage negotiating. In other words, they make it a real pita to take anything other than what they offer. Sushi’s snarky response is pretty spot on because of that. If you have an insurance company that needs a few providers because they are ridiculously low in that specific area and are worried about potential negatives from that, they might have some motivation to negotiate. UHC obviously doesn’t have to worry much about that since they are the ones who dictate policy.