BREAKING NEWS: The White House summons UnitedHealth CEO as payment paralysis enters third week
UnitedHealth Group, United Healthcare and Optum/Change fail to respond competently to unprecdented failure as entrenched payment system collapses causing physician practices and patients to suffer
(Photo of UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty. United Healthcare / UnitedHealth Group / Optum are currently mired in backlash from physicians and patients for mismanaging the response to an historic cyber attack and requiring the U.S. government to bail UnitedHealth Group out. UnitedHealth Group is also being investigated by the United States Department of Justice for antitrust White Collar Crime and systemic over-billing. They are also in federal court now facing lawsuits related to harming persons via Denial of Care by AI.)
Read more about this historic Managed Care failure in The Washington Post>
White House officials met with UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty and others in the industry on Tuesday to discuss a hack at the healthcare conglomerate's tech unit that has disrupted operations across the United States.
The meeting was the first to bring together providers such as hospitals and payers such as commerical health insurance corporations, said a spokesperson from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), adding that daily individual meetings have been held with all involved parties since the hack.
(Photo of Dirk McMahon who was named president and chief operating officer of UnitedHealth Group in February 2021. As president and COO. He was named chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare in June 2019 and previously served as president and COO of Optum, directly overseeing Optum Insight, Optum Technology, Operations, Optum Administration and business and corporate strategy. In 2017, McMahon was named to the Office of the Chief Executive.)
Change processes about 50% of medical claims in the U.S. for around 900,000 physicians, 33,000 pharmacies, 5,500 hospitals and 600 laboratories.
Officials from the U.S. Department of Labor and HHS in an open letter on Sunday had asked UnitedHealth to expedite payments to healthcare providers.
The Washington Post first reported that White House officials urged UnitedHealth to make more emergency funding available to healthcare providers affected by the hack.
(Photo of Brian Thompson who was named chief executive officer for UnitedHealthcare in April 2021. Prior to this role, he served as CEO of UnitedHealthcare government programs including Medicare & Retirement and Community & State. Before leading government programs, Thompson served as CEO of UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement.)
(Heather Cianfrocco is president of Optum. She is responsible for leading Optum's comprehensive pharmacy and care-delivery capabilities across the entire care continuum with a focus on value-based care and the integration of medical, behavioral and pharmacy services.)
UnitedHealthcare is on track to bring in $400 billion in revenue in 2024 extracted from Denial of Care by AI. UnitedHealth Group’s massive consolidation of wealth and power—allowed by the United States Congress since the 1980’s—has brought the United States healthcare payment model to its knees.