UHC as a Medicare Supplement (a Medigap plan) is hard for them to screw up, UHC has to pay the 20 percent that Medicare didn’t pay (after the deductible is met).
UHC as a Medicare Advantage plan is a different animal, a doctor network that is smaller than the regular Medicare network, and needing more authorizations and approvals for all sorts of things.
UnitedHealthcare under fire for using AI to deny Medicare claims
https://www.fox5ny.com/news/unitedhealthcare-ai-algorithms-deny-claims
What United Healthcare Did to My Mother
https://progressive.org/latest/what-unitedhealthcare-did-to-my-mother-sacks-20250113/
The current investigation is NOT about patient care etc.
It’s about whether UHC charged the government too much.
But there ARE problems with Medicare Advantage plans (United is NOT alone in this).
But many/most folks will not experience it until one day, push comes to shove.
The UHC Medicare Supplements AND the UHC Medicare Advantage are BOTH LABELED AS AARP.
This makes it even harder for many older folks (and/or low-information folks) to tell the difference.
Many of the people who signed up have NO IDEA that they now have to get care within a narrow network….
Medicare provider network is pretty big.
United’s regular commercial network is smaller but not too bad…
But the UNITED MEDICARE ADVANTAGE network is MUCH smaller.
I keep running into old folks who had no idea.
In 2013, United send letters to about 20 percent of their doctors across the country, saying that they would be kicked out of United Medicare Advantage network, but could STILL participate in United’s regular commercial networks. So this was NOT about quality…but rather a feeling that having fewer doctors would save money for United by making care a little less accessible for the old folks.
https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/unitedhealthcare-drops-state-physicians-from-4879923.php