Free Republic

Democrats on a Senate subcommittee are accusing UnitedHealthcare Group of denying claims to a growing number of patients as it tried to leverage artificial intelligence to automate the process. In an October report, "How Medicare Advantage Insurers Have Denied Patients Access to Post-Acute Care," Democrats on the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) released a report claiming UnitedHealthcare’s prior authorization denial rate for post-acute care jumped from 10.9% in 2020 to 22.7% in 2022. Denial rates for skilled nursing centers, in particular, "experienced particularly dramatic growth." The number of denied claims in 2022 was nine times higher compared to...

Police said they believe Jeremy Theron Smith committed a hate crime when he shot three women of Korean descent. Jeremy Theron Smith, the man accused of shooting three Korean women in a Dallas hair salon last week, had delusions about Asian people attempting to harm him, according to an arrest-warrant affidavit. Smith faces three charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Wednesday’s shooting, according to jail records. Police are also investigating whether two other recent shootings could be linked to the attack at the salon. It is unclear whether he has an attorney. The shooter had ‘delusions’ about...

Specialist Robert Terrio and his wife, Kary, thought they had avoided a dangerous deployment a few months ago when he learned that his Missouri National Guard unit would do a tour in Kosovo instead of Iraq or Afghanistan. "There's a certain amount of relief that we weren't being deployed to an active war zone,'' Robert Terrio said. Then, last month, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, a move Serbia refused to recognize. Suddenly, Kosovo started to look a little more dicey. Demonstrators torched the U.S. Embassy in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, mobs attacked several United Nations border posts, and gun...