DISPATCH RELEASE
United Healthcare: Profits before Patient
United Health Group has been accused of some serious allegations of putting profit before patients’ health and well-being. They allegedly have been pushing residents of nursing homes to sign DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) and Do Not Hospitalize orders when this might not be what the patients want. Another accusation is denying their nursing home residents access to an ER or hospital when their symptoms deteriorate. What motive could they possibly have for doing this? Why, the profit motive, of course: ER visits and hospitalizations must be paid for out of the flat per-patient fee they get from Medicare. Because of these alleged practices, United Health is now being accused of wrongful deaths. The following, based on a Guardian article published December 17, 2025 (link below), goes into more detail on these allegations against United Health. However, I encourage you to read the original article if you have time. There is much more in there that I cannot cover here. It is all equally terrifying.
“Advance directives,” like Do Not Resuscitate orders, let a person decide what their end-of-life care will be in advance. Many decisions are made about whether they want CPR if their heart stops, if they want to be intubated if they stop breathing, and other decisions that could potentially affect the bottom-line of their insurance company… That’s why these decisions are traditionally made in consultation with a healthcare provider, not an insurance agent. But what happens when the healthcare provider is employed by the insurance company?
United Health Group is made up of two parts. United Health Care is one arm that provides health insurance. United Health Care Medicare Advantage is a health insurance supplement for those on Medicare. Optum is the second arm which provides health services. One service Optum provides is hiring health care providers to diagnose and treat medical diseases. Optum hires Physician Associates (or PA’s) and Nurse Practitioners (or NP’s) to work in nursing homes and care for United Health Care Medicare Advantage plan participants. In other words, the PA’s and NP’s treat patients whose insurance is owned by the same corporation they are working for. They call it “vertical integration” and, as you may recall from a history class, it is the same sort of monopolistic behavior the robber barons of the 1890’s used. It is a huge conflict of interest! Why does our federal government allow this?
United Health care gets a set amount of money for each enrollee on their Medicare Advantage Plan that is in a nursing facility. More ER visits and hospitalizations for that enrollee means more money paid to hospitals and less money in United Health’s pockets. If the patient or family member signs Do Not Resuscitate orders, they are less likely go to a hospital for a higher (and more costly) level of care.
There are four whistleblower complaints from former Optum employees. There are also complaints from family and outside medical providers. Two of the whistleblower complaints are from NP’s. They filed declarations with Congress stating Optum pressured them to reduce needed transfers to hospitals and to get members on Do Not Resuscitate orders. The Congressional declarations filed by the two NP’s also state they were encouraged to find additional diagnosis codes, which normally does not change the nursing home resident’s treatment, in order to increase more taxpayer money to UHC (United Health Care). Examples are looking for weakened pulses in their nursing home patient’s feet and minor skin rashes.
These whistleblower complaints describe scenarios in which nursing home patients become very sick and need to be taken to the hospital for further care. Optum put a policy in place that they would need to approve an ER visit or a hospital transfer for patients with United Health coverage. In emergency situations, this is dangerous. We have a 911 system in this country for a reason. Even a call to the patient’s independent doctor would be better than waiting on the phone for an Optum representative to approve (or, more likely, not approve) a transfer!
One complaint comes from a PA who was working for a health care system that was not Optum/United Health. He was working in a New York state nursing home where Optum managed its United Health Care patients. He states a 63-year-old male patient was complaining of dizziness. The patient’s blood pressure was very low. So low in fact, that he had acute kidney injury as a result. He needed to be seen in the Emergency Room for IV fluids. Optum employees said “no” to this request. An Optum employee instead talked the family into signing a comfort care and end of life care order. The PA stated that this was “despite the condition being readily treatable and probably reversible even at that late stage.” This 63-year-old male patient was given comfort care until he died soon after.
Of course, United Health Group is denying they have done anything wrong. They will not speak too much, citing pending litigation and patient privacy. They state their goal is “to treat in place.” The complaints against United Health Group come from family members, United Health Group employees, and non-United Health Group medical professionals.
United Health Group made more than 4 billion dollars last year. How much of this came from tax payer money? It seems unbelievable that seniors are denied lifesaving ER visits so that C-suite executives and shareholders can make more money! But I do actually believe this. This is the country we’re currently living in, where money is more important than anything, even people’s lives. Everything in America right now comes down to how profitable is the business transaction, even in every aspect of our health care. Isn’t it past time for universal health care? Isn’t it time to get those lifetime Senators and Congressman out of our government and vote in new, fresh, honest people?