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UnitedHealth Group ripped off over 110 million Americans and they did it for 10 years!

An investigation begun by New York’s Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo said the company Ingenix, a research firm owned by UnitedHealth Group deliberately shorted reimbursements on out-of-network health insurance claims for Americans to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars!  Ingenix claimed it relied on ‘independent research from across the health care industry’ to determine reimbursement rates.

However, UnitedHealth Group and its company Ingenix manipulated the health care claims presented by millions of Americans having health insurance and shorted their reimbursements between 10% and 28% of what the coverage should have paid.   Instead, UnitedHealth Group, pocketed the millions of dollars it shorted Americans.  

UnitedHealth Group provides health benefits to 26 million Americans.  Nearly all health care insurance companies in the country were using the same low reimbursement rates.  Some of the largest health insurance companies who utilize the same Ingenix system are United Health Care (owned by UnitedHealth Group), Aetna, Cigna, Wellpoint/Empire BlueCross BlueShield and Genix.  These companies are currently under investigation in New York suspected of participating in the same reimbursement fraud.

How ironic UnitedHealth Group’s mission statement says in part: “We seek to enhance the performance of the health system and improve the overall health and well-being of the people we serve…We work with health care professionals to expand access to high-quality health care so people get the care they need at an affordable price.”

 Stephen J. Hemsley, CEO UnitedHealth Group, Inc.

Rather than anyone going to jail, UnitedHealth Group settled with the New York Attorney General by agreeing to pay $50 Million as the settlement to be used to establish and create a new database to determine rates for patients who choose physicians outside of the insurance giant’s network.  Little good this does for the millions of Americans who were ripped off by these insurance scumbags.

“This is a huge scam that affected hundreds of millions of Americans [who were] ripped off by their health insurance companies,” says Cuomo.  “This was unethical, and it robbed vulnerable patients of insurance reimbursements they deserved.”  Cuomo is now investigating other insurance companies that use Ingenix’s database.  There may be millions more on the line as well.

Of course, as is the corporate way of the guilty, UnitedHealth Group stated “We respectfully disagree with the New York Attorney General’s findings that we manipulated data … (or that our ownership of Ingenix was a conflict of interest.) We agreed to his settlement because it was an effective way to address any perceived conflict of interest.”

The American Medical Association, represented by Dr. Nancy Nielson, president-elect of the AMA stated “there is a profit motive for keeping reimbursement low.”  ”It is shocking and unacceptable for an insurance company to hide behind a shroud of secrecy”.  Nielson also said “It is another example of UnitedHealth playing by its own rules.” 

This is not the first time UnitedHealth has been involved in legal action.  In 2000, the AMA filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York over the exact same reimbursement issues.

In May of 2008, Oxford Health Insurance, Inc, a unit of UnitedHealth Group, had to refund $50 million to small business customers in New York to settle claims it overcharged for health insurance policies back in 2006.

More trouble from the past, when former CEO, William W. McGuire, M.D. was charged with securities fraud by the SEC.  Mr. McGuire ultimately found guilty, had to repay $468 million as a partial settlement of the prosecution.

In summary, I am of the opinion that corporate America is as corrupt as anywhere on earth.  CEO bilking millions in golden parachutes and executive compensation, while American citizens fund their luxurious lifestyles with hard earn money, simply to be overcharged, cheated and ripped off by the rich and powerful. 

The UnitedHealth Group scam, is no different that the crooks on Wall Street: AIG, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Citigroup, and other corporate manipulators such as Shell Oil, Exxon-Mobile, and so many other financial and energy leading companies.  The free market system is over in America, thanks to corporate greed which took its roots during the Reagan trickledown economic philosophy.

Corporate America cannot and should not be trusted and the federal government is almost in the same boat.  Disdain for hardworking Americans by the Wall Street and Corporate America is so prevalent, they no longer tried to hide.  The ‘haves’ continues to increase the divide between the ‘have not’s.

Americans, Republicans and Democrats, should be outraged and the raping and pillaging of their money by Corporate America.  We must begin to demand a government that works with incorporating fines and bringing to justice those criminals who rob, steal and cheap on a national basis from hard working citizens.  None of the men leading these companies have gone to jail.  Where is the justice for middle American who pays the bills for these outlaws?

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