Posted on 10/05/2016 5:10:37 PM PDT by george76
UnitedHealth Group has been sued by three customers who accused the largest U.S. health insurer of charging co-payments for prescription drugs that were higher than their actual cost and pocketing the difference.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Minnesota by three UnitedHealth customers, seeks to represent a nationwide class that it says could include "tens of thousands" of people insured by UnitedHealth.
The lawsuit said Minnesota-based UnitedHealth and affiliated companies charged customers co-payments for drugs that were significantly higher than prices it negotiated with pharmacies for those drugs.
For example, the lawsuit claims, one class member paid a $50 co-payment for Sprintec, a contraceptive, while UnitedHealth paid the pharmacy only $11.65. The pharmacy was then required to hand the extra $38.85 over to UnitedHealth under its agreement with the insurer, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit claims that such a co-payment "is not a 'co-' payment for a prescription drug because the insurer is paying nothing," but is instead "a hidden additional premium."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
United Healthcare has been screwing me all year on drug co-pays. $30-40 more each on 3 of my scripps.
“unless my doctor sent a lengthy explanation”
Bull hockey. Doc’s office calls Pharmacy and says alternatives don’t work or drug give the patient unwanted side effects and most of the time that’s all that has to happen.
Since Bammycare has come into being I think many of the big chain pharmacy are in bed with the generic makers.
I’ve seen chains tell people a med isn’t made anymore cuz they don’t have it stock!!! Cuz “people get upset if we tell them they have to go elsewhere”.
Call around. Prices vary big time. All depends on who made a deal with who.
“I joined AARP briefly many years ago.”
AARP and United are one and the same on many plans. You don’t know you have an AARP plan until you get the insurance card and even then you have to look for it.
Sorry if I offend anyone but IMHO the AARP is a racket!
Another huge reason to prevent the Ugly, Fat, Criminal Cow *itch from winning.
Clean out the FDA, top to bottom...
It wasn’t the pharmacy but the prescription card company that wanted the lengthy explanation. I didn’t feel that was necessary so I bypassed them and it didn’t cost me a dime because they EXPRESSly didn’t want to pay any part of the preSCRIPTion.
United blocked my refill on my prescription at Walgreens until I sat on the phone with United’s paid marketer trying to selling me on buying my Rx from them by mail.
United hasn’t paid a dime on my dozens of medical bills this year. They’ve spent a lot on postage sending me itemized excuses as to why they don’t pay for each charge, though.
Year is almost up and I still haven’t reached my deductible, thanks Obamahillarykennedy. Jan 1 it starts all over again (probably with an even higher deductible).
Bookmark for later. Have a complaint with this insurance company.
I had some discount (caremark?) from my AAA memebership. It was on file for years and they never once asked me to present a renewed (annual) AAA membership ID.
Some of these negotiated prices are just that, negotiated and the suckers pay full freight.
I’m supposed to take some medication. Supposed to run a couple hundred a month. I’ve gotten a month’s free bottle as a promotion and United can get it down to $100-110 a month. That promo coupon reduces it to around $36 a month. HOW MUCH IT IS REALLY?
We’ve got to pass the craptastic bill so we can find out what’s in it. Obama is only now reading that yes he DID lie as Joe Wilson pointed out in his SOTUA.
We had the same thing happen with us.
My wife died of liver cancer earlier this year. Toward the end, right before hospice, we were doing things ourselves (she needed certain regular treatments which I could administer and keep her out of frequent hospital visits).
On one prescription, UHC wouldn’t even fill it unless we bought it from their mail order place. So we did.
We refilled the prescription once, but before we could use it, she was gone.
When the dust settled I called the mail order place and asked about a refund (these weren’t drugs, but bottles and a kit for a procedure she needed a couple of times a day). Box was unopened, so they said send it back and we’ll mail you a refund.
Couple of months go by, no check. I called again, and they said they’d look into it. Never heard back.
Luckily I had paid with AMEX so I called them. They reversed the charge (it was a copay with UHC picking up most of the cost). Next thing I saw, there were TWO refunds on my AMEX, so I called and told them we had only returned one order, so I figured we were only entitled to one refund.
You know what those crooks had done, and would have gotten away with w/o me getting AMEX involved? They charged us a copay (which was still around $200 each time) BUT the TOTAL cost should have been covered by UHC because my wife had well exceeded her OOP and deductibles and everything because of all the chemo, tests, hospital stays, etc.
So they were charging US a copay when they should not have been one. When AMEX contacted them they must have panicked and reversed both copays.
Bunch of crooks.
Even now, like others have posted, I pay less for some prescriptions by paying cash at my local pharmacy than the copay is through UHC.
Bunch of crooks.
I have found a wonderfully stupid pharmacy. I’m not leaving! Two months now they’ve charged me $100 for a $200 drug, and this month they filled my migraine prescription twice (no financial issue but they thus let me have extra pills which is good). My favorite pharmacy now.
(I am cash pay for prescriptions because I use Liberty Health Share and no obamacare.)
I’m sure they’re making enough profit on 100 and I’m sure the other 100 comes in handy for you!!!
Stick with that pharmacy :)
My only fear with the pill count is i’m on klonopin for night tremors and it works great but is REALLY bad to run out of, even for a few days.
Glad you’re getting extra!! Hope I never get less!
On a prior authorization the doctor calls the insurance company, not the pharmacy, to explain why the patient is being prescribed a certain medication.
Do you mean a drug company can pay another drug company not to manufacture a generic? Pharmacies don’t make drugs, aside from compounding.
I get Medicare and I just dropped my supplemental health insurance. I was paying $1660 a year for it and the health insurance was covering maybe $150-$200 a year of costs. Why give them an extra $1400?
Not good. This is the kind of ‘capitalism’ that makes people either flock to socialism with a very legitimate grievance or start thinking about making a price adjustment with violent measures.
Tell your doc you want to order from Canada, that in emergencies you need to have more pills, and get him to write a script for more pills, then really get them from a good Canadian pharmacy. That helps, if you can front the cash. It helps me when I can do it.
I feel no guilt from getting my meds 1/2 off because for years my migraine pills were $30 a PILL. Such a rip off.
Sounds like you need to contact these people to join for a class lawsuit over this.
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A Freeper posted here a day or so ago that he had been part of a class lawsuit. When the case was settled, he received a check for $.02. TWO CENTS! Lawyers get the bulk of $$$.
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