Minnesota physicians and behavioral health clinic owners escalate desperate cry for Emergency Financial Support as UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty delays payments and imposes onerous "loan" terms
Ethical Minnesota healthcare professionals are now speaking out nationally on the record as financial pressure mounts and their calls for help go unanswered | By Kimberly J. Soenen
UnitedHealth Group is delaying Emergency Triage Funds and imposing onerous “loan” repayment terms on physicians in the range of 45 days and six months.
In addition, UnitedHealth Group / Optum is currently implementing an aggressive “Thank You” Public Relations (PR) campaign nationwide, pressuring physicians and clinic owners to publicly “thank” UnitedHealth Group / Optum on social media and in their trade publications of choice after receiving financial resources.
XXXXX,
My colleague Luke Powers mentioned you might be a candidate for helping get the word to health care providers that have not heard temporary assistance funding is available during our current service disruptions.
We are finding that many providers still aren’t aware that they can receive temporary funding or, if they looked at the terms a month ago, may not realize that getting funding has become more provider-friendly in the past couple of weeks.
Would you be willing to post to XXXXX social media handles that you were able to receive funding and other providers should check their options if they haven’t already? If so, we could have UnitedHealthcare and Optum amplify these posts to broader audiences by sharing them on these networks.
Also, we are being asked by the media for examples of providers who have received funding and found it helpful. Would you be willing to field a media interview or two?
If it would be easier to chat about this, I am happy to discuss for 5-10 minutes.
Many thanks,
Pete
202.277.7583
—Pete Simpkinson (he/him)
Senior Director, External Communications
Optum
202-266-6645 office | 202-266-5700 fax
simpkinp@optum.com | www.optum.com
THE FINE PRINT has obtained and fact checked multiple voicemails and emails from Optum as evidence of this aggressive “Thank You” PR campaign.
The emails and phone voicemails from Optum sometimes arrive to clinicians 2-3 times a day as they pressure, harass and intimidate already-distressed physicians. In some cases, in the state of Minnesota, physicians are receiving these calls and emails while manually searching for claims and struggling to meet their clinic payroll and personal home mortgage payments.
”Luke Powers" and “Pete Simpkinson” are two of the Optum employees who have been repeatedly phoning and emailing physicians pressuring them to thank Optum publicly for Emergency Resources. The name of the UHG / Optum “spokesperson" managing these two employees is Eric Hausman. On March 28, Mr. Hausman denied their intimidation and harassment tactics in private communication with this editor. His public comment follows.
“We’ve been clear that we are determined to support providers during this extraordinary time and are offering financial relief at no cost. You can find more information about our efforts, along with additional information on our cyber response here. Hope that helps.”
—Eric Hausman, Optum Public Relations Spokesperson, when asked on March 28 to respond to multiple emails sent by Optum pressuring Minnesota physicians to thank UnitedHealth Group publicly after receiving Emergency Triage Funds
As cries for help from Minnesota healthcare professionals go unheard, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty has been summoned to testify before the United States Congress to defend the mismanagement of the cyberattack response. Members of the United States Congress are complicit in the crisis in that they have permitted UnitedHealth Group to dominate market share and consolidate power and wealth—unchecked— over the last 25 years.
Two days before the cyberattack in February, the United States Department of Justice opened an active investigation into Andrew Witty and the subsidiaries of UnitedHealth Group related to an array of White Collar Crimes including but not limited to antitrust crimes, methodical overbilling crimes and anticompetitive intimidation tactics.
Groomed for Harm-for-Profit
UnitedHealth Group has also named CFO John Rex as the new president of the company. Mr. Rex is taking over the president role from COO Dirk McMahon, who plans to retire. UnitedHealth Group has not announced a successor in the COO role. Mr. McMahon spent 20 years in various leadership positions at UnitedHealth Group, and was named president and COO in 2021. According to a March 28 regulatory filing, Mr. Rex will assume the president role April 1.
(John Rex, UnitedHealth Group.)
Mr. Rex was was named executive vice president and CFO of UnitedHealth Group in 2016. In his role, he oversees treasury, mergers and acquisitions, and venture and private equity investments. Mr. Rex joined UnitedHealth Group as CFO of Optum in 2012.
Mr. Rex is the company's second-highest ranking executive. In 2022, Mr. Rex and Mr. McMahon were UnitedHealth Group's second-highest earning executives. They earned identical total compensation, at $15.8 million before perks, stocks, and other bonuses.
Healthcare Provider Complaints
What follows is a letter from Emily Benson, a Minnesota healthcare professional, to her Minnesota State Rep. Cheryl Youakim (DFL, District 46B) asking for financial help in the wake of the UnitedHealth Group / Change Healthcare cyberattack:
March 28, 2024
Greetings Representative Youakim,
I reached out to you about 4 weeks ago regarding the cyber attack on UnitedHealth Group’s Change Healthcare that essentially stopped all income to my mental health clinic in Edina that serves children and families. We are now rounding week 5 and many of our clinics are still struggling and continue to have no income due to changes that are electronic health records have had to make since Change Healthcare is nowhere near processing claims again, and we have had to turn to new clearing houses.
I have personally borrowed $84,000 from UnitedHealthcare and can no longer look to them for additional support due to the payback requirements and lack of assurance of when income will start coming in again.
Is the state planning to open up PPE or some other Emergency Funding for clinic owners like me so we can keep our doors open?
I, like other clinicians, are now at a point where we will be mortgaging our homes or taking out home equity loans to run our businesses to keep our children and families mentally well.
Kind Regards,
Emily
-Emily Benson, MSW, LICSW, RPT-S, SEP
Owner, Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Registered Play Therapist Supervisor
She/her/hers
Beginnings & Beyond Counseling/Play Therapy Minnesota
BeginningsandBeyondMN.com
PlayTherapyMinnesota.com
5666 Lincoln Drive Ste 210
Edina, MN 55436
p (612)367-6029
f (612)326-9828
UnitedHealth had $372 billion in revenue last year. Its (commerical) insurance unit covers about 53 million people, across a range of plans including employer, Medicaid and Medicare coverage. After years of unchecked acquisitions, Optum now owns about 90,000 physicians, as well as surgery centers, an array of health data and technology units, and one of the largest pharmacy-benefit managers.
UnitedHealth Group 2024 Q1 Earnings will be released Tuesday, April 16, 2024, before the market opens.
Mr. Witty has delayed testifying on The Hill thus far.