A breast cancer surgeon had to “scrub out mid-surgery” to call a UnitedHealthcare representative because the insurance giant questioned whether the procedure she was in the middle of performing was really necessary.
Dr. Elisabeth Potter posted her story to Instagram this week, and the post has gotten more than 221,000 likes.
Still wearing her scrub cap, Dr. Potter began her video saying, “It’s 2025, and navigating insurance has somehow just gotten worse.”
UHC has an enormous client pool, though. Their business model involves lots of kickbacks to HR/Execs and tons of money on marketing, as well as regulatory capture and consolidation/cartelization of competitors.
“Well, I simply won’t do business with you” isn’t a practical option for most hospitals, particularly in the ER or other time sensitive setting.
I could be wrong, but I believe ER visits are handled differently?
It only speaks to how bad UHC is that even though their business model is marketing and kickbacks, there are still providers who don’t want to have anything to do with them.