Tag: UHC

An Insurance Claim–Like Pulling Teeth

UHC–any time anyone says anything against a single payer government run health insurance system I will fondly remember this 20 minutes I’ll never get back.

I’d like to thank United Health Care for today’s blog entry. Who knew calling an insurance company could be such a monumental event.

It all started with the automated voice prompt system. Call me crazy, but the automated voice tried to sound too friendly and it upset me. I know why it’s there. When the decision was made to put it in my convenience was down at the bottom of the list–if it was in the list at all.

Finally, after making a mistake in a date and not knowing how to undo it I asked for a representative. I answered a few questions and was transferred to another agent. She was in the “rapid resolution” department. Please. Spare me.

We went through her list of questions and when everything was done she rattled off a sentence that had lots of words but no practical meaning.

“Is my claim approved,” I asked? That seemed like a good question.

She rephrased my question to remove what I wanted to know and then answered again. It was an answer without the information I wanted. I asked again and again. Each time she rephrased what I was saying so she could answer a different, easier question. That’s a hell of a skill. Are they trained to do that?

After three or four of these little episodes I tightly rephrased my question and she fessed up… I think. It looks like I’m approved.

Why is this like pulling teeth? UHC–any time anyone says anything against a single payer government run health insurance system I will fondly remember this 20 minutes with you I’ll never get back. I know the whole idea is to make it inconvenient enough some people will give up and go away and the money will stay in your pocket.

How could a government plan be worse than yours?

Crime Pays–That’s Upsetting

We have now shown that for years consumers were consistently low-balled to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

I’ve just read a story in the Times about a database run by United Health Care. IT was used by UHC and other insurance companies to come up with the “reasonable and customary” numbers used to decide out-of-network reimbursement.

UHC’s subsidiary that ran the database estimated low to the tune of 28%. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said:

“For years this database was treated as credible and authoritative, and consumers were left to accept its rates without question. This is like pulling back the curtain on the wizard of Oz. We have now shown that for years consumers were consistently low-balled to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.”

New York reached an agreement with UHC. It’s not cirminal and it takes United Health off the hook. Cost to United Health Care–$50 million.

Hold on. Didn’t Cuomo say, “consumers were consistently low-balled to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.” Taking Attorney General Cuomo at his word the least UHC could have made was $200,000,000. So, at the worst they had a 4:1 return on this investment.

Where is the disincentive to be evil?