[SBD1]

I posted this here so that everyone will know what UnitedHealth and Pacificare have done to me and so that others will have their guard up. In case you are wondering, I am the cancer patient listed in the lawsuit and would appreciate it if others could help spread the word on their websites or blogs. I should not have to go through all of this and fight cancer at the same time while the CEO of UnitedHealth backdates stock options to the tune of 1.6 Billion.

Any help would be much appreciated,

SBD

[genxer]

Will keep you in prayers.

[Young Scholar]

A press release from the Law Offices of Robert K. Scott? Forgive me if I withhold judgment on UnitedHealth.

[plain talk]

"I was repulsed when I learned that the CEO of UnitedHealth Group had 1.6 Billion in stock options

Well how much money the CEO has been paid is certainly irrelevant to the case. You may have a valid case but using liberal class war tactics sure turns me off.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

Did you ask the surgeon why he didn't send frozen sections for evaluation of the margins at the time of surgery? I might not have all the facts, but from reading the lawsuit it appears that a big part of the blame could be put on the surgeon. It sounds as though he thought by visual inspection that the margins were clean, and that the tumor was benign. That's not a diagnosis that can be made accurately without histology. When did he tell you and your family that it was benign? He should not have told you that without having the permanent pathology report back.

Did you have the total nephrectomy at Cleveland Clinic? Are you okay? Good luck and prayers for you.

[stylin19a]

sorry to hear of your troubles. It would seem cheaper for UHC to pay the claim than defend against your lawsuit.

I'm thinking that Dr. Anthony also should be up to his a$$ in alligators.

Curious what the "discrepancy" was on the application ?

[khnyny]

Good luck to you and God bless. Thanks for posting your story.

[sitetest]

Dear SBD1,

Good luck to you.

Here in Maryland, United Healthcare recently bought MAMSI, a regional provider of small group health insurance.

My company's health insurance with MAMSI (I own the company and select the insurance) went from not-too-bad, and not-too-expensive to horrible and wildly outrageously expensive, overnight.

We're thinking of suing them.

I hope they all drop dead.


sitetest

[PAR35]

If you have a good case, you try it in court, not in the media. Press releases from law firms generally indicate a strategy of trying to get the defendant to settle to avoid bad publicity, not a desire to litigate a strong case on the merits.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

United Health was really good on it's own. Pacificare was always terrible.

Good luck my friend.

I'm now with Blue Shield.

[unsycophant]

Thank you for posting this.

Good luck with your case against United. I hope you prevail against them, as they seem to have a reputation for being dirty and should be held accountable.

[Snoopers-868th]

Similar to companies paying huge CEO wages yet they file bankruptcy and squirm or deny promised benefits to employees/retirees who dedicated their service to them.

[jamaly]

Thanks for posting this. I am sorry to hear about your situation and will keep you in my prayers.

[Hostage]

I have been posting frequently in the last months about McQuire, the CEO of UHC United Healthcare who just announced his abrupt retirement, and many other administrators that seem to think their purpose in life is to skim from a health insurance pool and overpay themselves.

By the way, McQuire's stock options are $1.8 billion and they were backdated. His annual salary was $219 million.

In all things of capitalism I have never been bothered by someone earning as much as the capacity of a free market could allow, but healthcare is not one of them.

First healthcare is not a free market, it is a regulated captive market. Second, healthcare has a large government involvement, meaning that alot of the revenue stream is originating from taxpayers. Third, the way to grow a healthcare insurance business in which all such insurers find themselves in a saturated market is to acquire other insurance companies.

One way to get capital to acquire such other companies is to sell (dilute) stock and promise accretive earnings. But to get such an accretive position means a tradeoff between the amount of dilution and the merged financials of the acquirer and the acquiree. That translates to pressure to get the stock price up. But markets will normally drive a stock's shareprice up only in response to an increase in earnings. That further translates to cutting costs, expenses, increasing the time of the float and so on.

In the insurance business it is simply a matter of denying and delaying coverage to premium payers, or getting rid of the high risk insureds, which appears to be what happened to you.

This is what irritates myself and others to no end, to see patients get the shaft because such crooks as McQuire want to pig out at the healthcare trough.

UHC and others have been consolidating their businesses through acquistion and they have institutionalized a policy of deny deny deny and otherwise delay in order to get their financials in order to make those aquisitions.

My wife, a physician, says UHC is the worst. She spends far too much time on the phone in her clinic fighting to get coverage approval from them for her patients. Her time could be used so much better by not having to deal with UHC and others like them.

UHC is but a sympton of a larger problem. The solution for doctors is to go with something like 'retainer fee medicine'; Google it to get an idea what it is.

Just so we can all be informed, the way employers got involved in health insurance started in WWII when wages were frozen. Employers offered non wage benefits as part of compensation, usually pension plans and company stock. Some employers started to offer paid visits to doctors as well.

The long and short of today's healthcare problem is there are too many hands in the pie, too many middlemen. The system is very inefficient. All that is needed is for a patient to pay their doctor or the medical group they contract with.

The idea of insurance is if you and I pay on the average $500 a month (our employer pays it for us as part of our compensation package) then if I need $1000 of medical services this month then you and others are going to pick up the extra for me. And conversely, if you need a $1000 of services next month then I and others will pick up your end.

But it's not $1000 in services even if the doctor and the doctor's staff say that is what it costs, it's $2000 because the 'administrators' and their staff got their hands in the pie. So they get in the business of driving up costs and at the same time claim they are managing costs. It's a scam.

Congrats on getting some lawyers to take your case. I hope they sue UHC out of existence. I will gladly short their stock. Their stockholders deserve the same fate as Enron if they can't see the cesspool of corruption they've bought into.

And good luck on fighting your cancer. There's great hope today for alot of cancer patients.

Lastly, make sure it's Ok from your lawyers to communicate information on this forum. They might have a better chance if you remain mum.

[djreece]

My prayers are with you as you battle your cancer. Thank you for standing up for justice. I too have been battling illness this year, and my insurance company is giving me a hassle now that I am making a claim after years of paying the premiums and never having to use the coverage. The procedure was preappproved, medically necessary and clearly covered, but so far they are refusing to pay. It is unconscionable that some companies will put people who fighting for their health through additional hassles for what is rightfully ours. I am glad there are ways for those who have been wronged to fight back and hope the right thing will be done in your case.

God bless you and heal you.