Who will stop Andrew Philip Witty?
Longtime untouchable Minnesota-based darling investment firm UnitedHealth Group is now being exposed by whistleblowers, ethical physicians, FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan & Attorney General Merrick Garland
Over the last eight weeks, major promising shifts have taken place across the United States Managed Care and corporate hospital chain landscape. That change? Patients, physicians, medical residents, nurses and business owners are pushing back fiercely against the United States approach to, and model of, healthcare, as well as the indivduals who propel the Harm-for-Profit systemness.
(Andrew Witty, CEO UnitedHealth Group)
The End of the Harm-for-Profit Era
Last week, more than 1,000 resident physicians and fellows at the University of Chicago Medicine announced their intention to unionize. U of C medical residents now join Northwestern, Stanford, University of Illinois Chicago and many others coast-to-coast making efforts to reclaim autonomy in decision-making, end Fear of Reprisal work environments and redirect financial resources back to medical staff and patients rather than shareholders and senior management at Commercial Health Insurance companies and hospital chains. In addition, Healthcare for All Minnesota and similar organizations nationwide have proposed Statewide Single Payer Health Programs to give citizens an alternative to the Commercial Health Insurance Denial of Care business model.
This organizing has been ratcheting up over the last 47 days at the same time Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group, United Healthcare and Optum have been delaying and denying Emergency Payments to physicians and clinics nationwide in the wake of the cyber attack on UnitedHealth Group’s Optum/Change Healthcare in February. Physician lawsuits against UnitedHealth Group / United Healthcare / Optum continue to snowball while their cries for financial help go unheard by state senators, Attorneys General and Public Health officials.
While physicians dip into personal savings, mortgage their homes, miss payroll and process medical claims and payments manually, UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty is preparing to defend his business tactics and practices April 30 on The Hill. Mr. Witty, his executive board members, and senior managers are currently being investigated by the United States of America Department of Justice, Health and Human Services, and the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law. In addition to investigating their reprehensible response to the cyberattack in February, the White Collar Crime investigations include defrauding shareholders, methodical overbilling, antitrust crimes, anticompetitive crimes, intimidation of physicians and many more.
Who is Andrew Witty?
Mr. Witty has a track record of architecting and executing unethical—and frequently criminal—business tactics and working for companies that prioritize profits over patients and shareholder ROI over safety. His life’s work has been dedicated to self interest and ensuring his income increases quarter after quarter often at the expense of patients and citizens. In some cases, he cheated the taxpayer-financed health system in the UK and in others, he used bribery as a business tactic in China.
While Mr. Witty and his legal team strategize on his testimony spin for the U.S. Congress, internal emails published today by the New York Times show UnitedHealthcare employees grappling with complaints about high fees. When one executive suggested limiting the amount charged New England Motor Freight, a colleague resisted. Internal employee whistleblowers at UnitedHealth Group and its subsidiaries are getting louder as they question the unethical—and frequently—criminal practice of the untouchable Minnesota-based company.
When Mr. Witty faces U.S. Senators and the American Public on April 30, it is worth mentioning that the U.S. Congress, the Executive Branch and the Judicial Branch of government are all complicit in permitting the consolidation of power and wealth by Managed Care since 1996.
How Consolidation of Wealth and Power in Healthcare Has Imposed Preventable Harm and Death
A number of healthcare organizations have recently closed medical departments or ended services at clinics because of financial distress. The volume of M & A announced in the first quarter of 2024 was substantially higher than the same period in 2023, according to an April 1 report by Cain Brothers, a division of Key Banc Capital Markets.
What are the first steps of helathcare consolidation? 1) Cut medical staff 2) Reduce patient services and 3) Sell hospitals and clinics off like widgets.
Eighteen transactions with $10 billion in total revenues for the targets were announced in the first quarter of 2024, compared to 12 deals with $3.4 billion in revenues for the targets in the first quarter of 2023, according to the report. The 81 deals announced in the last 12 months is the highest in recent years, highlighting the increasing momentum of hospital and health system M & As nationwide. Seventy-five transactions were announced in 2023, compared to 59 in 2022 and 64 in 2021.
How do these closures impact patients and communities? What happens to mentally ill persons, seniors and disabled persons (and their loved ones) when they are “transferred” or relocated? Why are physicians not being paid Emergency Funds by UHG? Why does UHC use PxDx and nH to systemically deny medical care to its premium-paying customers? How does UHG/UHC audit and use private medical records and private behavioral health medical records? Did UHG expose the medical and personal identity data of millions of patients in February? How many UHG/UHC employees work to adminster the methodical Denial of Care by AI function daily? Is the United States approach to, and model of, healthcare serving citizens effectively?
Possibly Mr. Witty will answer.
Here are 20 department medical facility, service or closures ending, announced, advanced or finalized since March 1, 2024 (Becker’s Hospital Review):
1. Atmore (Ala.) Community Hospital is closing its surgery department June 1 due to low patient volumes, inflating costs, and low reimbursement rates, including lack of Medicaid expansion.
2. A south Alabama hospital that was at the center of a state Supreme Court ruling on the status of frozen embryos said it would no longer provide in vitro fertilization treatments after this year. In a statement, a spokesperson for Mobile, Ala.-based Infirmary Health hospital system said Infirmary Health has temporarily resumed IVF treatments at the hospital but will end the services after Dec. 31 "in light of litigation concerns surrounding IVF therapy."
3. Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica and Cleveland-based MetroHealth are closing their joint venture skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility at MetroHealth's Old Brooklyn Medical Center in Cleveland. New patients stopped being admitted to the skilled nursing facility April 1, with plans to close by early summer once existing patients have been transferred or released.
4. Regional Medical Center Health System said on March 22 it plans to end inpatient services at Stringfellow Memorial Hospital in Anniston, Ala., and transition the emergency department to its main hospital campus, which is about a mile away.
5. Mee Memorial Hospital in King City, Calif., has started transitioning patients to another dialysis clinic as it plans to close its dialysis center in June. The hospital's dialysis center opened in 1995, and officials said it is in need of renovations and equipment upgrades amid advancements in dialysis services.
6. Beginning April 1, Seton Medical Center Coastside in Moss Beach, Calif., will temporarily close while structural repairs caused by storm damage are made. Officials with the facility, which is owned by Alhambra, Calif.-based AHMC Healthcare, told local news outlets it will be closed for six to nine months.
7. Mercy Health-Fairfield (Ohio) Hospital, part of Cincinnati-based Bon Secours Mercy Health, is closing its labor and delivery services and transferring them to Mercy Health-Anderson Hospital and Mercy Health-West Hospital, both in Cincinnati, effective May 1.
8. Columbia City, Ind.-based Parkview Whitley Hospital, part of Fort Wayne, Ind.-based Parkview Health, is closing its family birthing center and relocating it to the new Warsaw, Ind.-based Parkview Kosciusko Hospital, tentatively scheduled for Sept. 1.
9. West Monroe, La.-based Glenwood Regional Medical Center, part of financially troubled Dallas-based Steward Health Care, closed its inpatient rehabilitation unit March 20.
10. Wahiawa (Hawaii) General Hospital temporarily closed its emergency department, effective March 18, due to heating, ventilation and air-conditioning issues. The closure will allow the hospital to fix its HVAC system, with a work completion timeline unclear.
11. Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health is temporarily shuttering its pharmacy on Eastern Michigan University's campus in Ypsilanti. The closure is expected to last from March 22 to late summer amid supply and staffing issues. The pharmacy has had ongoing operational issues.
12. Renovo, Pa.-based Bucktail Medical Center is closing its long-term care facility May 14. CEO Laura Murnyack, BSN, RN, said officials explored options to keep the facility open, but "its increasing costs severely undermine Bucktail's fiscal position."
13. Adventist Health Tulare (Calif.) is pausing obstetrics services June 6 for an unspecified amount of time. Hospital officials said they are working to recruit providers to eventually reopen the department. The planned closure comes after year-over-year births at the hospital declined 60%.
14. Daviess Community Hospital in Washington, Ind., will close its inpatient behavioral health unit May 1 as it looks to put more resources into outpatient mental health services.
15. Adventist Health Tillamook (Ore.) is closing three medical offices by April 12 after yearslong efforts to recruit additional qualified medical providers into the rural communities.
16. Scripps Mercy Chula Vista (Calif.) hospital, part of San Diego-based Scripps Health, is transferring its obstetrics care services and Rady Children's neonatal intensive care unit to its Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego campus. The decision to consolidate the obstetrics unit with Scripps Mercy San Diego, which will take three to four months to transition, is designed to allow room for adult medical and surgical patients in need of a bed at the Chula Vista hospital,
17. Northampton, Mass.-based Cooley Dickinson Hospital, part of Somerville, Mass.-based Mass General Brigham, is closing its South Deerfield, Mass.-based Sugarloaf Pediatrics practice and transitioning services to Amherst, Mass.-based Northampton Area Pediatrics, effective July 1.
18. New York City-based Mount Sinai Health's Beth Israel campus ended its stroke and cardiac services March 10 due to voluntary staff departures since the planned closure of the hospital was shared in September.
19. Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic Health System announced March 1 that it will not reopen its clinic in Janesville, Minnesota.
20. Marshfield (Wis.) Clinic Health System closed urgent care services at its Marshfield Medical Center-Weston (Wis.) location, effective March 8.