A Guardian investigation finds insurer quietly paid facilities that helped it gain Medicare enrollees and reduce hospitalizations. Whistleblowers allege harm to residents
UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest healthcare conglomerate, has secretly paid nursing homes thousands in bonuses to help slash hospital transfers for ailing residents – part of a series of cost-cutting tactics that has saved the company millions, but at times risked residents’ health, a Guardian investigation has found.
Those secret bonuses have been paid out as part of a UnitedHealth program that stations the company’s own medical teams in nursing homes and pushes them to cut care expenses for residents covered by the insurance giant.
In several cases identified by the Guardian, nursing home residents who needed immediate hospital care under the program failed to receive it, after interventions from UnitedHealth staffers. At least one lived with permanent brain damage following his delayed transfer, according to a confidential nursing home incident log, recordings and photo evidence.
All insurance is gambling. They are betting that you’ll pay thousands in home insurance or car insurance, and never make a claim, like most people. It’s a good bet for the insurance companies.
But Health Insurance is different. Unlike your house burning down or your car getting wrecked, which seldom if ever happens, EVERYBODY gets sick, and eventually dies. It’s ALWAYS a losing bet for the healthcare insurance companies. They have no choice but to rig the game so they can win.
That’s why we need to forget about Health Care INSURANCE, and think in terms of Health Care MANAGEMENT. That needs to be in the hands of an entity that isn’t motivated by profit, and that’s the government. EVERY other country in the world understands this, but America is a Ferengi nation, and we literally worship profits. And I mean LITERALLY - Prosperity Doctrine is the most powerful religious philosophy in America at the moment.