Key Highlights
- Those are admissions the insurance giant would otherwise have to pay for. In Georgia, the family of a woman named Cindy Deal filed a lawsuit alleging that the 58-year-old died because Optum and her nursing home failed to hospitalize her for hours after she started foaming at the mouth and appeared to be having a seizure. In Ohio, the family of a retiree named Mary Grant filed a lawsuit claiming that the 70-year-old died after Optum and Grant’s nursing home failed to send her to the hospital, though she had suffered a traumatic head injury and began vomiting. Mary Grant’s daughter browses photographs of her mother on her phone.
- addie McGarveyIn New York, a physician’s assistant named Christopher Bieniek alleged in a complaint to state authorities that a 63-year-old nursing home resident died due to “gross negligence” by an Optum employee.
- The employee refused to hospitalize the man, despite his kidney failure, according to text messages Bieniek says he shared with state investigators. Citing patient privacy rules and pending litigation, UnitedHealth’s public relations team did not directly respond to specific questions about the three cases, but said that many of the claims were unsubstantiated or based on incomplete or embellished information. The company has previously denied the Grant and Deal families’ claims in court, and attorneys representing UnitedHealth disputed some of Bieniek’s claims.“We remain confident in our transparency, our compliance and our steadfast commitment to patient-centered care,” the company said.
- “We will not legitimize a one-sided and misinformed narrative by further engaging with it.
- Our focus continues to be where it belongs: delivering high-quality care for our members and standing with the clinicians and care teams who devote themselves every day to improving patients’ lives.”The three cases highlight the dual role that UnitedHealth has taken on for thousands of nursing home residents across the country: medical insurer and provider of direct care. Like many American health insurers, UnitedHealth has expanded across the healthcare sector and no longer limits itself to simply paying or denying its members’ medical bills. In nursing homes, for example, the conglomerate deploys its own army of nurse practitioners and physician assistants from its medical services arm, Optum, to care for seniors covered by its insurance arm, UnitedHealthcare.
