How UnitedHealth’s playbook for limiting mental health coverage puts countless Americans’ treatment at risk
How UnitedHealth’s playbook for limiting mental health coverage puts countless Americans’ treatment at risk
United used an algorithm system to identify patients who it determined were getting too much therapy and then limited coverage. It was deemed illegal in three states, but similar practices persist due to a patchwork of regulation.
Summary
UnitedHealth Group’s Optum subsidiary uses algorithms to identify patients and providers deemed to be receiving excessive mental health care, leading to reduced coverage and potential harm to patients.
Despite regulatory actions in some states, the company’s practices continue due to the lack of a unified regulatory oversight.
Mental health advocates argue that this fragmentation benefits insurance companies by allowing them to shift scrutinized practices to other jurisdictions.
UnitedHealth is pure evil.
If anyone ever burns down UnitedHealth facilities or murders anyone in their executive leadership, just know that if I am on your jury you are going to be acquitted.
Also executive dysfunction (fancy word for the motivation and planning it takes to do complex tasks like navigating bureaucracy) is a symptom of pretty much every mental illness ever making them the easiest population to collect a premium from then bury in paperwork and by doing so never actually have to pay out for services. When you add in having the government cut a check perr poor person to insurance companies to provide state benefits it basically becomes an infinite money glitch that churns faster the more people you force into poverty.
Wow. I never considered executive functioning and neurodivergent related behaviors as predictable patterns for insurance companies to exploit, but you're absolutely right.
Insurance companies suck, and UHC sucks the worst.
Imagine what a tragedy that would be if the UHC CEO's house was firebombed while they were away, or if his car exploded right before he got in it. I wonder what it would take to get the message across.........