A Guardian investigation finds insurer quietly paid facilities that helped it gain Medicare enrollees and reduce hospitalizations. Whistlebl
The United State's scummiest insurer, and formerly one of the 10 most profitable corporations in the world, for years worked to keep nursing homes from sending their sick residents to hospitals where they could actually receive proper medical care.
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. “No one is truly investigating when a patient suffers harm. Absolutely no one,” said one current UnitedHealth nurse practitioner who recently filed a congressional complaint about the nursing home program. “These incidents are hidden, downplayed and minimized. The sense is: ‘Well, they’re medically frail, and no one lives for ever.’”
For-profit medical insurance is a system of rationalized brutality in the name of siphoning even more money from those who have no choice but to pay. UnitedHealth's share price is plunging as its brand has become toxic following the discovery of widespread fraud, but the same amoral financial calculus runs through the entire system.
