If you ever wondered what would happen if private equity logic were incorporated into America’s healthcare systems, look no further than UnitedHealth.
According to a report from The Guardian, UnitedHealth has allegedly been pressuring nurse practitioners to flip elderly patients’ status to “Do Not Resuscitate,” even when these patients have explicitly requested to be resuscitated. If the report is correct, then United Healthcare is choosing to kill the elderly as a cost-cutting measure.
One former practitioner who spoke to The Guardian says that UnitedHealth is “pretending to make it look like it’s in the best interest of the member…but it’s really not.” The reality of it is that it looks more like a ploy to reduce hospitalizations and to jack up profits. This wouldn’t just be unethical; it’s potentially criminal.
UnitedHealth Accused of Denying Care to the Elderly to Cut Costs
While disturbing, it’s not necessarily surprising. United Healthcare is, after all, a company that seems desperate to cut costs in any way possible, regardless of morality and ethics.
The company already has a history of using AI tools to auto-deny elderly care claims, and the company is under both civil and criminal investigation for alleged Medicare fraud. Internal incentives allegedly encouraged staff to leak sensitive nursing home records to help UnitedHealth sales teams push insurance plans to vulnerable families.
The company is in freefall right now. Its stock is plummeting, its CEO just dipped out of the situation with no forewarning, and you may remember, its previous CEO was murdered with few feeling any sympathy for him. Given recent revelations, it’s easy to see why.
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