Shareholders of UnitedHealth Group (UHG) are calling on the corporate’s board of administrators to launch a report on how its coverage of limiting or delaying entry to well being care could also be impacting the corporate’s model and the economic system general.
The proposal by shareholders requested that the UHG board of administrators produce a report wanting into “how company practices impact access to healthcare and patient outcomes, including analyses of how often prior authorization requirements or denials of coverage lead to delay or abandonment of medical treatment and serious adverse events for patients.”
In a supporting assertion, the shareholders mentioned UHG insurance policies that trigger “delayed or avoided medical care” threaten each the corporate model identify in addition to its buyers’ portfolios by “increasing consumer debt, jeopardizing health of policyholders and thereby reducing workforce productivity, straining government resources, and risking increased taxes.”
When reached for a response, a UHG spokesperson declined to particularly touch upon this proposal, directing inquiries to a press release the corporate issued final month relating to “misinformation.” UHG mentioned it approves and pays 90 % of medical claims upon submission.
“Highly inaccurate and grossly misleading information has been circulated about our company’s treatment of insurance claims,” the assertion learn.
The corporate’s declare course of got here below congressional scrutiny final 12 months, with a Senate report discovering that UnitedHealthcare and different main well being insurers denied post-acute care providers for Medicare Benefit at “substantially higher rates” than prior authorization requests for different sorts of care.
“The data provided by the companies show that, not only did insurers deny prior authorization for postacute care more often than other services, but that the rate of denial was substantially higher for some companies,” the report discovered.
“For UnitedHealthcare and CVS, 2022 denial rates for prior authorization of post-acute care services were approximately three times higher than the companies’ overall denial rates. In the case of Humana, rates for 2022 were over 16 times higher.”
Timnit Ghermay, director of Northwest Coalition for Accountable Funding (NWCRI), led the submitting of the proposal. Ghermay cited the latest killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in a press release explaining the request.
“UNH has been in the media and legislative spotlight for some time given its market dominance, aggressive marketing of Medicare Advantage and questionable use of AI algorithms to deny care to patients,” Ghermay mentioned. “As the tragic murder of UNH’s Brian Thompson made evident, public outrage over the exorbitant costs and restricted access to healthcare has reached a dangerous level in our country.”
The NWCRI is a part of the Interfaith Heart on Company Accountability (ICCR), which describes itself as a “coalition of faith- and values-based investors.” The ICCR has beforehand filed proposals for UHG to supply experiences explaining its use of synthetic intelligence in addition to racial disparities inside the firm.