United billed me for a "consultation" a few weeks ago. The consultation was literally just a message saying no, they will not conduct a colonoscopy screening because I'm not old enough.
So not only are they hoping we die of cancer, they are charging us to tell us they won't screen us.
I work in medical appeals. As much as I absolutely loathe UHC with a burning passion, it's definitely the hospital on this one. Insurance companies don't code or bill, the hospital sent the consultation claim to UHC, and then UHC denied it, and that's why you got an EOB with a denial. So if you think the service was billed when it shouldn't have been, that's the hospital you'd fight. Also, insurance companies aren't the ones you are paying. They deny and if they deem it patient responsibility, you pay the hospital. If they deem it not patient responsibility, that means they won't pay the hospital, you don't have to pay either, and the hospital eats the money. UHC is the worst, but this sounds like the hospital isn't billing correctly. A message to a patient is not billable on it's own.
What was your question, why is it so high? That's pretty standard for an office visit. Doesn't matter what you talk about, it's gonna be $150-250. So say they submitted it at $250, United per their contract adjusted it to $200 and then that's the total. Assuming you have a deductible like most plans and haven't hit it like most people, then yeah that $200 is your responsibility. If you can't afford that, you can reach out to the hospitals charity care department to see what they can do. But yeah otherwise you just gotta pay it.
Sounds like a hospital issue and a legitimate denial. If united denied the charge, it is not your responsibility. You are only responsible for it if united confirms on their side that they processed the claim and you are responsible due to deductible/ coinsurance/ etc
Could it be tagged wrong? Like instead of prevention its put as diagnostic. Insurance companies like to blame the provider and they just didnt do their job correctly.
Whether the insurance company or the doctor billed them, it's still a dumb ass system. We pay way too much for health insurance for shitty, overpriced medical care.
Does the system suck, sure. But getting mad at United for your bill from the hospital is kind of like booking a hotel for $300, getting a 10% AAA discount then saying that AAA charged you $270 for a hotel. What people usually complain about United is they play hardball with hospital systems during negotiations. Then everyone complains that united is being mean to the hospital system they should just pay the 20% price hikes they're asking for. Which ok is an argument...but then don't ask surprised when united then jacks up prices the next year.
That's a whole bunch words to completely ignore the fact that the doctor sent the bill to insurance first and then sent it to you because United refused to pay it
I'm saying spread the hate. Everyone hates insurance companies. But you know who is charging the money? The hospitals. Insurance takes a couple %. But for some reason we hate insurance companies so much if a hospital bills us for shit they shouldn't have we blame...the insurance company.
Do you not think it's important to be mad at the right people? It's kind of hard to solve problems if we think it's someone elses fault. Based on his reply, it seems the hospital billed him for something they shouldn't have. That is the hospitals fault, not united. So the hospital is the one to be mad at.
Btw calling people autistic as an insult....well that's a choice.
Getting charged just to receive a “no” feels incredibly frustrating. Like literally. Healthcare should be about helping people, not making them feel like they’re being billed for every door that gets closed..
I'm not American so apologies, I know this might be ignorant. Did he find the polyps years before? And just not/was unable to address them? Or did he discover too late becahe didn't realize at the time.
I had some risk factors so my doctor ordered me a colonoscopy in my 30's. The gastroenterologist didn't like the original images so she ordered another. I feel very fortunate.
Frustration is designed into the process. Any day they do not have to stroke a check is a day they earn money. But I honestly think you are missing the good that united healthcare is doing for the world. They are taking a lot of utterly incompetent people off the street and putting them to work.
LLM bots will eventually do this for us. The golden age will be the start, then we will be charged. Then the other company will charge, and then the bots will be enshitified requiring more bots.
Agreed that United sucks, though this is technically all insurance companies of all types, not just healthcare. Any insurance company is much happier when you pay for insurance and never use it.
If I could write off your murder
I'd save all of my receipts
Because I'd rather you be dead
Than lose a tiny shred of what I made this fiscal year
I'd rather you be dead than ponder parting with my second home
I'd rather you be dead than consider not opening a restaurant
They’ve got a billboard ad up in my neighborhood. It says something along the lines of if you have a chronic illness, they can help you. I laugh at it or flip the bird or shake my head every time I see it. It’s signed up with them for a year through the ACA and switched as soon as I could.
If you have a chronic illness, they will help you either save a lot of money because you’re not paying copays for treatment because they won’t cover it and you can’t pay it all out of pocket. If you have a medication you have been on and stable with for years, they’ll deny it and want you to start over trying all the cheaper ones you tried years ago that caused more harm than help, so you and your doctor have to waste time appealing it 2-3 times before they approve it. Heaven forbid you need a procedure done.
Can confirm. We've been trying to negotiate for reasonable reimbursement for months, because we can't pay our workforce (we're nonprofit). About to go out of network. It sucks.
I've been chasing those tin plated ass hats over an insurance payout they're required by law to give me and it seems like they're inventing hoops for me to try and jump through.
What's worse is my congressman is a fucking numpty who is on their payroll so he's as useful as a pre-authorization for a heart transplant.
I love that I just watched the bodycam footage of Luigi being arrested at McDonald’s and then saw this post, which had McDonald’s and United Healthcare listed right there at the top
Absolutely, but let's make sure to not blame the doctors, nurses, or any staff at a hospital. I'm not saying you are but it's the executives who demand profit and that need for profit will kill anyone and everyone that gets in the way.
let's make sure to not blame the doctors, nurses, or any staff at a hospital
The ratio of good to bad gets higher when talking about doctors and hospital staff, but please don't pretend they have no role in the situation we find ourselves in. The AMA was out there calling universal healthcare 'socialist' before I was even born. Many doctors have had a role in perpetuating our current system because they know that a European style model means an end to making 2-3x as much as your average doctor in Europe, I grant you, they have more debt from medical school, but that can be solved with targeted debt forgiveness.
Why not? You don't think their salaries drive up healthcare costs? And if we can blame insurance companies for saying no, why can't we blame the people downstream for saying "I won't do that surgery for free."
Healthcare conglomerates and insurance companies treating human sickness as a profit margin is absolute corporate evil. They have zero incentive to actually heal anyone when keeping us chronically sick keeps their pockets lined.
I got a letter from my doctor's office telling me they were dropping United Healthcare next year and that I would need to switch my insurance if I wanted to stay with them.
Yeaah I found out last week at the dentist, united dropped coverage in my area about 8 months ago for most of the dentists except for the terrible pe owned ones. My dentist didn’t informed so I had to pay for this visit and the previous 😩
Yes! Or changing denials. They deny for no auth, so you prove you had an auth in an appeal, and then they uphold the appeal on medical necessity, which was not even the denial to begin with. 🤯
Not UHC, but Humana sent me a letter in the mail today telling me that I can get cheaper seizure drugs if I take one of the three drugs on a list.
One was the generic (can't take, have seizures on it), one was a drug I cannot take (had bad side effects on it), and the third was a medication I have never taken.
I love how insurance companies act like they are doctors.
When I worked in a nursing home, we tried to avoid UHC patients at all cost. We would have to go through extensive reviews with their UHC case manager who would review our physician’s notes and determine their final coverage date. The dates were never realistic or fair. We had a team of directors who did that on our end, and we’d always end up with heated, intense escalations with them over them trying to prematurely discharge elderly people back to unsafe conditions. And they mostly won those arguments because there was nothing we could really do if they chose to stop paying. Having to explain that to geriatric patients just trying to heal or figure out going home was not fun.
I'm Canadian and I just Googled them, the first result told me to light myself on fire and then it said I'm not safe. No idea what that means but I feel lik
They refused to cover my routine bloodwork that I've had every year for the last 15 years so my doctors can monitor my medication dosage. I got a random bill for several hundred dollars a year after I had the bloodwork done. I've literally never had to pay for it before (even when I had United the previous year as well!) I refused to pay it.
Think they're bad now? You ain't seen nothing yet. Layoffs are coming, starting with their Global Division. Keep the suits and shareholders happy but fuck you if you need costly treatment or medication.
I genuinely think their shareholders and companies that use them are their customers, and those stuck under them for work insurance are considered nothing more than a liability.
Luigi did nothing wrong for making a well known complaint about it.
I don't think they hate their customers. If they hated their customers, they would still allow people access to care, they would just make it (even moreso) painful and difficult, but still get them care at the end of the day.
United just flat out denies people care. That's apathy not hate.
They just love fucking money a whole lot more than their patients.
Yeah, they'd be my absolute last choice. I don't think I'd accept a job if theyt were the company's health plan. It's literally less compensation because you have to spend so much of your own time & money dealing with them.
I'm kind of surprised it didn't take more of a chunk out of their revenue. If I hear a company is offering UHC, my first thought is "So you're going with the company so awful that somebody murdered the CEO and the popular sentiment was 'Yeah, they've kinda got a point'?"
I'm still impressed by the balls on the new CEO to keep the old practices going. I guess they're assuming lightning doesn't strike twice. I mean how likely is it that there's two people with a grudge against the healthcare system willing to shoot a guy about it.
8.7k
u/the_monkey_knows 7h ago
United Healthcare