DOJ Investigates Medicare Billing Practices at UnitedHealth
wsj.com
wsj.com
> The Wall Street Journal continues to report misinformation on the Medicare Advantage (MA) program. The government regularly reviews all MA plans to ensure compliance and we consistently perform at the industry’s highest levels on those reviews. We are not aware of the “launch” of any “new” activity as reported by the Journal. We are aware, however, that the Journal has engaged in a year-long campaign to defend a legacy system that rewards volume over keeping patients healthy and addressing their underlying conditions. Any suggestion that our practices are fraudulent is outrageous and false.
This is a ridiculous statement to make. Most people who have had any significant experience dealing with health insurance has run into denials of claims that are obviously covered by their policy, which is literally fraudulent. It’s not just United, but also others like Aetna. The tactics of these companies is to deny the claim at first, make you deal with repeated calls, hour-long hold times on every call, and months long waiting periods between calls while they “investigate”. This entire machine is meant to exhaust patients and push them into just giving up and paying out of pocket. And unfortunately it works.