• ElectricAirship@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    6 days ago

    A user in another post wrote that denials went from single digits to 20% when he became CEO.

    If that’s true, then people are celebrating both for who he was AND what he represents.

    • fishbone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 days ago

      That is indeed the case, though there’s more to those numbers. Thos are numbers for prior authorization denials, but they’re also from a report focused on Medicare Advantage plans for elderly and disabled folks (you know, the people who would be most fucked over by denials). Pulled from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Thompson_(businessman)

      The investigation revealed that in 2019, UHC’s prior authorization denial rate was 8.7%. Thompson became CEO in 2021, and by 2022 the rate of denial had increased to 22.7%.

      As an added bonus, there’s also this insanity that he tried to push through:

      In 2021, Thompson was criticized in an open letter from the American Hospital Association regarding a plan from UnitedHealthcare to start denying payment for what it deemed non-critical visits to hospital emergency rooms. UnitedHealthcare responded by delaying rollout of the change.

      I wonder if UHC has ever denied coverage to victims of gunshot wounds?

      • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        His murder was clearly a message to Healthcare CEOs intended to scare them.

        That makes it terrorism, and life insurance policies usually have an exception for death in a terrorist attack.

    • Nottalottapies
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      6 days ago

      Question from a non-American, can you choose your Health insurer, or is it decided by your employer?

      If you can freely choose, it would be great to have these denial/delay rates published, so people could vote with their feet to the company with the lowest denial rates and thus apply pressure to companies like this.

      Simplistic view, I know. Things are much different here thank goodness.