UnitedHealth: Court upholds ruling (against doctors)

Source: AP via Business Week

UnitedHealth Group said Monday an appeals court upheld a ruling that dismissed a class action lawsuit against the health insurer.

The company said the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the June 2006 judgment by the Southern District Court of Florida, which dismissed all claims filed by a group of physicians against UnitedHealth and Coventry Health Care Inc. in the Shane v. Humana case.

The case, brought by more than 600,000 doctors in 1999 against 10 managed care companies, alleged that the insurers routinely denied or underpaid claims. Eight of the insurers agreed to an estimated $646 million in settlements, while UnitedHealth and Coventry fought the claims.

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8PRA2OG0.htm

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Not much more at the article, a note about how their stock price rose. Bring on Sicko!

has treated folks and then had the insurance claims denied. Her clinic is a non-profit and her aim is healing, not making money. So when the insurance companies pull the rug from under her, sometimes it really hurts financially, because many of her patients don't have the funds to pay the bills. She really gets mad when the insurance companies try to tell her what treatments and prescriptions she can offer.

we need more sunshine on the insurance industry. They just buy their way out of trouble and the problems never get solved.

single payer plan. They're sick of fighting with insurance companies that claim to cover patients and then deny the patient's claims.

They want some stability in the way we finance health care. We will never see stability as long as there are over six hundred different carriers fighting for the insurance premium dollars and keeping those dollars by refusing claims.

In addition, the current system is inherently inefficient. The overhead of most insurance carriers is between thirty and forty percent of the premium dollar. Compare that with the overhead of Medicare, which is three percent. And the Docs like Medicare. At least the ones that I have spoken with. It doesn't pay as much as they would like, but it DOES pay every claim, and it does so quickly and with no argument.

If that's what you define as 'Socialized Medicine" you're flat wrong.

Coventry any more - they don't pay the required amount on claims.

United is in the middle of desputes with two other big hospitals - same complaint.

I personnally think all the insurance companies suck.

It's awful when you pay premiums for coverage and then discover that the insurance company refuses to pay.

Sure makes me feel insecure about getting health care. I can't afford to pay the costs out of pocket.

Nurse's Association's to back single payer (non-insurance company related) healthcare. We are pushing for it in California and the Calif. Nurses Association has been a loud and persistent force behind it. As a healthcare worker myself, I would like nothing more than to put the insurance companies out of business, permanently.

They are guilty of denying proper care, and will continue to do so until the next time they settle out of court. In the meantime, people will continue to suffer and die so they can reap windfall profits. That's just fucking great!

For that reason alone, government needs to be involved.

equation.

{i]Anyone offering up a "plan" that doesn't do so is simply feeding us a load of bull- a boondoggle that's destined to fail- and maybe make matters worse.