How UnitedHealthās Playbook for Limiting Mental Health Coverage Puts Countless Americansā Treatment at Risk
Reporting Highlights
- An Insurer Sanctioned: Three states found Unitedās algorithmic system to limit mental health coverage illegal; when they fought it, the insurer agreed to restrict it.
- A Patchwork Problem: The company is policing mental health care with arbitrary thresholds and cost-driven targets, highlighting a key flaw in the U.S. regulatory structure.
- Unitedās Playbook Revealed: The poorest and most vulnerable patients are now most at risk of losing mental health care coverage as United targets them for cost savings.
An article from a month ago about United Heathcares problematic coverage, which I believe is relevant again.
Great write-up. This explains why so many of my provider friends tell me they want to go work at Starbucks or Target, which didnāt make sense at first because you still have to deal with the public. This gives some additional perspective.
You do but at the end of the day target or starbucks wonāt randomly take back 3-12% of your gross income. They also pay you consistently. I like my job but there are a lot of times I get real fucking frustrated at a period where my pay is super low for an extended period of times. Insurance companies are also assholes about paying. To be fair most of the time theyāre on top of shit but sometimes theyāre not and thereās nothing I can do about it. Sometimes theyāre weeks behind on payments and itās just like, oh well, that sucks, hope you have savings! But if Iām late submitting billing to them they will often raise a stink about. and this can absolutely be one of the things that later becomes an issue during an audit that results in them clawing back a payment. 0 sympathy if I am overwhelmed but if theyre overwhelmed? Tough shit, Iām getting no pay that week.