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Still on my bullshit about UHC. Feel free to scroll by 😊

When a patient I was working with sued UHC, I learned a lot about who has courage. And who would publicly speak out against their denials of care beyond the generic tweets that some of my colleagues liked to do at the time. But also learned how deep UHC’s reach goes.

When the ProPublica article came out, I shared it with those same tweeting colleagues (and others) and while they expressed outrage to me, they remained silent. Why? Because they feared retribution from their employers (academic medical centers) who feared retribution from the largest health insurance company in the world. Chris and I were sure the leaders in this particular disease space would amplify what happened, and try to put real, collective pressure on UHC. When they didn’t, he was crushed. I was livid. I’m sure this contributed to me eventually quitting my job.

One senior physician’s response to me sending the article to them was “way too long.” That’s it.

One, who refused to be an expert witness and wouldn’t go on record with ProPublica, got mad when the article took off and they weren’t in it. Because all they really care about is their bullshit image and being in control.

The president of a patient advocacy group got mad when their banal comments weren’t used in the article. They got madder when I suggested their muted response was maybe because UHC was a major donor to their organization. If you wanna burn down a bridge in your career, do that 😂

Point being, all those billions of dollars have long tentacles that influence every facet of a patient’s life. Even those people who are “on our team!”

So look into the donors to disease non-profits. There may be some really gross relationships there. Google your physicians and look for conflict of interest statements they may have out there on a conference PowerPoint. Some may contract with UHC (or others) to review claims, which can be very lucrative.

I have my theories as to why UHC donated to that particular organization but it’s just my opinion so I’ll refrain. However, the page on their website that I found it on mysteriously was taken down shortly after my accusation. Because as we all know, stuff put online totally disappears when you delete it.

There were 5 physicians who stepped up that I want to acknowledge. 2 eagerly agreed to be expert witnesses to fight for some justice. The other 2 were told by their employers they could not be a witness. 1 was very vocal on social media and said they were fine if they got in trouble. The other also went on record despite knowing they could be fired. The last was Dr. Glaucomaflecken, who does the comedic videos about U.S. healthcare. He amplified the story to millions of followers, and made UHC specific videos to boot.

They were a tiny fraction but their courage meant everything when so many looked the other way in silence.