“Heartless Decision: Doctor Exposes Insurance Company’s Unbelievable Stunt Against Breast Cancer Patients!”
The group had a revenue of $371.6 billion in 2023, an operating income of $32.36 billion, a net income of $23.14 billion, and assets worth $273.7 billion.
At the time of writing, UnitedHealth Group ranked 8th on the 2024 Fortune Global 500 list, with a market capitalization of $460.3 billion as of December 20, 2024.
Dr. Potter is an Austin, Texas-based board-certified plastic surgeon and DIEP (deep inferior epigastric perforator) specialist. She has a large following of 28.9k people on TikTok and 31.3k on Instagram.
Her video on TikTok, where she explained what happened with the insurance company and her patient, currently has over 4.6 million views and counting. Meanwhile, the doctor also shared two follow-up videos on the topic, in which she gave a couple of updates.
UnitedHealthcare told the Daily Mail that Dr. Potter’s claims are supposedly unconfirmed. “There are no insurance related circumstances that would require a physician to step out of surgery and it would create potential safety risks if they were to do so,” a representative of the company told the outlet.
“We did not ask nor would ever expect a physician to interrupt patient care to answer a call, and we will be following up with the provider and hospital to understand why these unorthodox actions were taken.”
Meanwhile, UnitedHealthcare shared the same response with the team at Newsweek, more or less word for word.
“The trend is disturbing. There is no room in healthcare where the pressure of insurance isn’t felt by both patients and doctors. Not even the operating room. When will we say enough is enough and push back? I’d say now. This is already out of hand,” Dr. Potter told Newsweek via email.
Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio / Pexels (not the actual photo)
There appears to be a huge lack of trust between patients and health insurance companies. There’s a lot of tension
Finance expert Michael Ryan explained to Newsweek that insurance companies can sometimes employ so-called attrition strategies, which are “a calculated approach where administrative hurdles serve as profit protection mechanisms.”
Ryan states from his experience that “if even 30% of patients give up on pursuing care due to delays and denials, that translates to hundreds of millions in preserved capital for the insurer.”
Meanwhile, financial literacy instructor Alex Beene, from the Univesity of Tennessee, told Newsweek that whether or not that call was necessary, these situations are why public relations are so strained between the public and health insurance providers.
“Individuals pay a good portion of their earnings over their lives for coverage for their families and themselves, only to discover when they actually need to utilize that insurance, they are denied the ability to do so,” Beene said.
“No one expected businesses like UnitedHealthcare to completely change overnight, but there does need to be a better understanding of the policies and procedures that go into accepting or denying a claim. If all that’s known is that the claim is denied and transparency continues to be elusive, it’s going to bring more resentment to an industry that can’t afford much more.”
Meanwhile, founder and CEO of Ansel Health, Veer Gidwaney, told Newsweek that health insurance companies “often take actions such as this to manage costs.” However, Gidwaney stressed that expenses should never come at the expense of patient safety.
What do you think about the entire situation, dear Pandas? What would you have done if you were in Dr. Potter’s shoes? Have you ever had any issues with your health insurance or major problems with your health? What do you think US companies could do to fundamentally reform their approach to business and coverage? Let us know in the comments.
Here’s how some people reacted to the doctor’s story as it started spreading across the net
Thanks! Check out the results:
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