news UnitedHealth strikes again: fined $165 million for purposefully misleading consumers

[Europe]

Quote

Three UnitedHealth-owned  insurance companies collectively must pay over $165 million for engaging in widespread deceptive conduct that misled thousands of consumers in Massachusetts into unknowingly buying supplemental health insurance.

 

The penalties were warranted on the grounds that HealthMarkets, which UnitedHealth acquired in 2019, and two of its subsidiaries marketed major medical and supplemental insurance in bundles from 2012 to 2016 in a way that deceived consumers into buying supplemental policies

 

Sales agents were trained to hide the costs of individual policies so consumers did not know what they were buying. The practice targeted vulnerable consumers who could least afford their products.

 

UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealth's health insurance subsidiary, in a statement said it would appeal the decision, which is "clearly unsupported by the evidence and contrary to established Massachusetts law.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/unitedhealth-units-ordered-collectively-pay-165-million-misleading-massachusetts-2025-01-06/

 

Edited 8 hours ago by Europe

[getBusy]

Who's the CEO? Oh wait

[Sazare]

teehee
 

[umich]

[Sazare]

We really shouldn't lose sight of the fact that this isn't a UnitedHealth problem though; the entire private health insurance industry is rotten to its core and shouldn't exist in the first place.

 

But regardless: teehee

 

[PoisonPill]

1 hour ago, Sazare said:

We really shouldn't lose sight of the fact that this isn't a UnitedHealth problem though; the entire private health insurance industry is rotten to its core and shouldn't exist in the first place.

 

But regardless: teehee

 

You're not wrong, but that's a bit of an oversimplification. The healthcare providers and corporations that criminally overbill patients are as much the problem as the insurance providers that deny the claims.

[Vegvisir]

[Cesar]

165M is nothing to them, its the cost of doing business at that point

[Sazare]

1 hour ago, PoisonPill said:

You're not wrong, but that's a bit of an oversimplification. The healthcare providers and corporations that criminally overbill patients are as much the problem as the insurance providers that deny the claims.

I mean sure, most hospitals in the US being privately-owned/for-profit enterprises doesn't help at all. It's more or less the same driver of the problem at both ends.
 

But private insurance A) doesn't need to exist, unlike hospitals, and B) exacerbates healthcare costs on its own. Just the sheer administrative burden it places on billing departments (and everything billing in a hospital touches, ie everything) creates a sizable hole in revenues that providers end up needing to recoup somehow.

Edited 5 hours ago by Sazare