Open letter to United Healthcare: To Whom it May Concern: I have had the distinct pleasure of practicing medicine for 13 years now, and I love the calling of medicine. For that is truly what being a physician is to me - a calling to care for my patients, walk through life with them, give them the best care I possibly can and direct them to where they can get great care if I can not provide it. One place I never direct them is United Healthcare. You may profess to wanting to create a simpler, more personalized health care experience. But obstruction to patient care is what I see when I deal with you and many other companies. Unfortunately, you are not the only insurance company that does this, but in my opinion you are the worst offender. Let me give you an example. I am pretty sure that every MRI that I order for one of your insurance holders goes to physician review. Maybe this is not entirely true, but it sure seems that way. I get that MRIs are expensive, and sometimes done unnecessarily. But when I order and MRI i feel I have a very good reason to do that test, or any test, on that specific patient. My notes tend to document the patient complaints and the findings on exam, as well as the concerns that I have and why we need this test. So after my office is denied approval I am forced to call the number you provide, put in the reference number, and then wait to talk to someone. This usually takes 5-15 minutes. Time that I could spend seeing patients, charting my visits, or even (gasp!) eating lunch or seeing my family. Heres the thing: EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE CALLS RESULTS IN AUTHORIZATION OF THE MRI. Every. Single. One. Not once have they been denied. So why not believe that I know what I am doing and not make me jump through another hoop to take get a test that I believe, after years of training and experience, is appropriate for the patient that I have seen and examined? I realize that there are a myriad of nice answers, but the short answer is that by doing this you get enough doctors to give up and by not doing the test you make more money. I believe your company made $2,500,000,000.00 in the last quarter of 2013. Perhaps your profit margin is sufficient that you can now start to invest in improving patient care rather than obstructing good patient care. Please consider this as your company moves forward in the coming years. Sincerely, Charles F. Keller, MD P.S. It is fine to share with others if you so desire. P.P.S. The opinions in this post are solely mine and may not reflect the opinions of my employer or coworkers. (Posted on United Healthcares page, not sure it will remain there.)
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 18:50:55 +0000
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