I am employed by uhc, my mother dying she is 93 years old.  Since I went bring her to live with in the 2nd week of September with Alzheimer’s it has been nightmare.  I ran out of PTO.  On September 28, 2015 she fell and broke her arm.  I took her to the emergency room and was wrote up, and give a occurrence.  When I took to the orthopedic surgeon again was give another occurrence and another.  I went home because I could not reach anyone.  I told my supervisor I would work from home for the rest of the day,  When I got home I found my husband laying on the floor called paramedics he was in a diabetic coma the paramedics said, I was given another occurrence.  He was rush to the emergency room and put in the ICU for 4 days.  Thanks to the lord he recovered, and I was again given another occurrence .  Then my mother  had a stroke  and again I was given another occurrence, for going to the hospital with my mother.
Again I was written up when I came in late for setting up hospice care for her.  Now I am at 5.5 occurrence’s.

Once upon a time I was so happy to be working at this company.  I guess I was a fool!  Now I have requested a personal leave the physicians are saying she only has 7 to 10 days to live.  I received a email from my manager saying the personal leave had not been approve and it is the companies expectation that I will be to work on time on Monday 11/30/2015.There is documentation for all these event but it does not matter  does it ?  My job is being threaten because mother is dying !  This is something I would have never believe of my beloved company.  I guess I will now have to look for another job because I can not change the prognosis for my mother life expectancy.

G. W.

What a horrid company UHC is! Their agents blatantly lie to cheat one out of money.

My situation began when I wanted to go to a physical therapist regarding a lower back injury I had encountered on my own. I shopped around for a couple months to find an office that would take UHC and charged acceptable rates. I found a highly-rated office that said with a referral I wouldn’t have to pay much other than a copay for each visit. I got a referral, and the office contacted UHC to confirm that I WOULD ONLY NEED TO PAY MY $45 COPAY UPON EACH VISIT.

Fast forward several months, and, suddenly, the office sends me a bill for well over $300, showing that UHC had only covered an extremely tiny portion. Assuming a clerical error must be involved, I immediately contacted the office, only to have it confirmed that UHC definitely did not pay for my visits as it had been indicated they would.

I called UHC’s customer service, and the first person I talked to immediately understood my situation, reviewed my account, and said there was definitely a problem. She said the filing was done improperly, and that I definitely shouldn’t have to be paying the office anything. She said, in fact, that I may even be entitled to a refund! She transferred me to a “claims specialist” to get the matter resolved and the bill paid by UHC.

I speak to the “claims specialist”, who puts me on hold for nearly 10 minutes to just “review” my account. After coming back, she says everything looks just fine. There were no errors and that UHC would definitely not be paying the bill.

Uh… what?

When I finally escalated to the supervisor, I was again informed that everything was totally right and that I had a $500 deductible to meet. When I told her that she is either lying about this now, or multiple representatives lied to me and to the physical therapy office before, she just told me I could fax or mail a form to appeal the billing. She could not tell me where to get this form, nor where to send it.

Horrid, law-breaking liars. I was only with them because of my father’s insurance, and I’m now on my own with Blue Shield. UHC should be taken down permanently for their lying and thievery.

My dentists office has sent me repeated statements stating that they are still awaiting payment from United Healthcare Dental for claims related to my spouses partial plate. This has been going on since early this year. We paid our required half of the charge but United has never paid their share. I’ve called their customer service number every time I’ve received another “awaiting payment” notice from the dentist. Each time I’ve been told by a different rep that the check had already been sent to the dentist but had not been cashed yet. But when I call my dentist they state that they’ve never received any payments yet from United.
Now, as aggravating at that is what makes it worse is when I try to take their “short survey” about their service the system shuts down after I respond with negative feedback. That same friendly voice asking for my opinion suddenly changes into a low grumble of “we’re sorry but were experiencing problems completing the survey”, click!!

In the meantime my dentist is charging us new interest each month on United’s unpaid balance. I’m at my wits end as to resolve this.

I have had a condition that requires blood tests and other tests, yet when I went to get a blood test at the same place they wouldn’t pay and said that 4 days before they changed the approval so that the company I used was no longer covered.  They are also restricting testing that I need so if I don’t test I could possibly die because I wouldn’t know if I am okay to take my medicine or wait until the test read okay.

Here are two quick examples of how UHC has screwed me.

1. Last year I had a basil cell carcinoma removed. That is essentially a pre-cancerous mole. The total cost with Blue Cross was two $30 co-pays (you have to have it biopsied and tested, which is one visit, then, if it turns out positive, you have it completely removed on the second visit). This year I had the same scenario. Total cost with UHC was two $50 co-pays, plus $232 in “surgery fees”. Same doctor, same everything. According to the billing clerk at the doctor’s office, this is the norm with UHC. Pay as little as possible for anything. By the way, their total contribution to the cause was $52. We (myself and my employer) pay a total of $1,200 per month for coverage for my family. When I actually need to use the insurance, they pay $52.

2. I am on two recurring medications. The monthly cost under Blue Cross was $11 for both. Under UHC, it is $27. Same medications, same pharmacy. And, to add insult to injury, I was just notified that I will now be forced to use their mail order service or they won’t cover the meds at all. It saves me a whopping $5 per month, but if you have ever dealt with these mail order pharmacies you know that they learned customer service from the same school as the DMV, the IRS, and the cable companies. I am not looking forward to this…

Oh, yes, and in case you are wondering, I am actually paying more per month for coverage with UHC than I did with Blue Cross.

Initially posted on Facebook:

This is an update to let folks know that Senator Udall has started an investigation of UHC and thier actions on a military retiree family request.

TRICARE insurance by congressional law mandates the insurance as benefit “entitlement” to those who have suffered a disabling injury, or met duty requirements and retire from serving in the US military and protecting your country.
You are due this benefit and in my humble opinion; UHC is managing this insurance entitlement like a civilian health program maximizing a return of investment (money). I do not believe they are acting on your behalf or interest. I think they only care about the bottom line, money, not providing for you and assisting you to achieve the best care available, in my humble opinion.
The Congressional law states that TRICARE insurance is it is to provide the best health care possible to military retirees and family.
I encourage you if you are having problems and no one is listening, or helping you, to post your plight on the Facebook page, and then contact your Congressman to investigate and ensure you are receiving the care promised to you by law. In Colorado, Senator Udall is your point of contact. If you file a complaint with TRICARE it will be investigated by UHC! (surprise). Of course you can guess as to what the outcome will be.
Senator UDALL is investigating this matter for me, however you need to file with him or he can’t help you. He WILL help you.
Go to the website and you can start investigation in less than 5 easy minutes. http://www.markudall.senate.gov/?p=casework_form_standalone&standalone=1
It will only take a few complaints to have hem to see it is a very large problem requiring a full Congressional oversight investigation. Then we can get this fixed for all retires as a result of an unbiased independent investigation. Help yourself, and help your fellow warriors.

Originally posted on our facebook page: United Healthcare bought the Brazilian well conceited Amil and the complains already started. I Worked at a company that was coverage by Amil , deciding to leave the company , I called Amil stating that I would stick to the plan as an individual . The same referred me to a broker who negotiated the best modality , did the contract , paid , Amil cashed my check days after signing the contract, which happened on 14 / 02 . The termination of coverage would end on 01 / 03 when it should start the new contract.
Today , 06/ 03 my wife was taking an exam and the hospital didn’t accepted, we called Amil to request understand what was hapenning and for my surprise I was informed that the plan was not in the system, I questioned that I had not received any return of the broker and my check had already been cashed. After calling broker , she went to investigate. I just received a return of the manager of the broker stating that Amil was declining the contract because my daughter 6 years old had consumed much of the earlier plan . previous contract, my family of 5 members almost didn’t use the plan . That consumption of my 6 year old daughter , it was a crisis , the first and only, acute bronchitis where she was hospitalized for a week. Then I ask Amil and United Healthcare what does It cover?, Why have a plan if a simple fact that a child be hospitalized for a bout of bronchitis is enough for AMIL deny the renew of a contract? We live in the third world and we now United HealthCare came to sell for us services of the third world, where profit , speculation and lack of scruples is prevailing more than the quality of the service.

Posted by Jasmine:

My daughter, Kai, is a transplant patient.

We started receiving benefits through United Healthcare on February 1st. At the time, my husband was switching companies and our old health insurance, through Cigna, overlapped for a period of one month. My husband went 1099 with his company in August and we enrolled in COBRA to continue our benefits through United on Sept 1st. His company renewed the plan on April 1st.

I believe in July they started denying claims, saying that we had a secondary insurance (referring to the brief overlap, in which Cigna was used as the primary insurance). I called and explained that the Cigna coverage only overlapped because we had already paid for the month before my husband switched companies and that coverage ended March 1st. It appeared to be resolved but I’m not certain if it ever was. We were receiving $1,700+ bills at the time for my daughter’s routine lab checks, as well as denied claims for pediatrician visits, etc.

Next, I started receiving more denied claims stating that we hadn’t met our deductible. Normally, our deductible is met very early in the year due to my daughter’s very high, frequent medical bills.  I called them and they confirmed that we had not met the deductible, went over what my deductible’s were and how much I had left to pay. Confused, I started paying those bills because I didn’t have the information to refute it – the EOBs were only online and I didn’t have the log-in information. My husband had to contact his company to get it, but the business that they contracted to administer their benefits was very difficult to communicate with.

In the meantime, they also denied authorization for a surgical procedure for my son, my daughter’s medications, forced us to go with their specialty mail-order pharmacy to get the medication that is necessary to keep her alive and then made it difficult to refill on-time with no ability to escalate to any kind of manager, consumer advocate or appeal the situation.

My family and I started posting on their social media pages and I began blogging about how they were denying us coverage that we are paying $1,200/month for. Initially, United contacted my mother and asked for my contact information. They pointed the finger at their specialty Rx devision, Optum Rx. A woman from Optum called me and told me that, though her hands are bound by United’s policies, she would do anything in her power to get Kai’s medicine to her on time, even if she had to bend the rules a bit, and gave me her direct line.

Then, my daughter was hospitalized for pneumonia for about 5 days and she was denied her medication (a tier 1 antibiotic) upon leaving the hospital. I still can’t tell you exactly why or what exactly happened on the United side with that, but the discharge nurse called the Rx (levaquin, which she had been receiving via IV and it was the only antibiotic she had responded to) to CVS. When I called to see if it was ready, they told me it would be nearly $800! I called United and they argued with me, saying it should only be $10. I agreed and the representative called the pharmacy, then she told me it wasn’t covered because they didn’t have it in stock. I then called my daughter’s old pharmacist and asked him to run it for me. He also did not have it in stock but he said it would be $60 (not $10 and not $800). After contacting my daughter’s transplant team, they decided to write her an Rx for a less expensive antibiotic and hope it worked because, at that point, she just needed to get the dose on time so the the pneumonia didn’t reestablish (being immune suppressed, it can be very serious for her).

I took to social media, again, and an executive from the United Healthcare corporate office in Connecticut in the Consumer Affairs department contacted me. She offered to be my case manager. She called back a few days later to say that she didn’t understand why my son’s surgery had been denied – that my plan should cover it – and that there was no record of any attempt to authorize it (which is false because I received a letter from them about it AND wrote a letter of appeal) and they also said there was no record of my calling about my daughter’s levaquin. She sent a letter with her number and the number for someone else if I should have trouble getting my daughter’s Rx through their mail-order pharmacy. I have not heard from her since.

Finally, I went to pay bills this weekend and realized that all of our claims are STILL being denied. I called again yesterday and they said, again, that we had not met our deductible. To which I replied, “There is NO WAY.” I asked when the deductible started and the rep told me September 1st… when we enrolled in COBRA. We didn’t change our plan, it didn’t renew, we just started paying for the benefits ourselves ($1,200/month). The deductible SHOULD have started in April, when the plan originally renewed. Further more, I know we MUST have met the deductible some time ago because we also had an HRA from his company that paid 75% of the total family deductible, that was exhausted sometime between July-September (I’m still trying to get all the info together). We would have had approximately $700 left to pay toward it and I know we’ve paid significantly more than that.

I called and left a message for the executive who was at lunch when I called around 1:40pm. She has not called back. I called the number on the back of my card again and was told that, because they can’t “see” my plan prior to September 1, I am responsible for telling them when I reached my deductible and providing them with the particulars.

So, here we are. I was finally able o get the log-in for MyUHC online and review the EOBs and it’s just a complete mess. It doesn’t look like they adjusted anything from when they were claiming we had secondary insurance. The total “Patient Responsibility” listed is over 4x’s what our annual family deductible is and we have a $21,000 claim waiting to be processed with about $500 worth of bills/denied claims waiting to be paid.

Also, we have been paying for dental coverage through United/COBRA with Guardian and, although we are up to date on payments and just received confirmation of that via mail with an itemized explanation, we were told that they are denying that we have coverage at all when I tried to schedule my kid’s dentist appointment.

I have not yet had a chance to even attempt to resolve this as I have been focusing on the medical coverage issues.”

I am a mother of 3 with a chronically/seriously (and, by some definitions, terminally) ill child. I work 2 part-time jobs from home. I homeschool my children to better take care of my daughter’s health issues. I spend an average of 8-12 hours a week on the phone, trying to get the coverage we pay for from United Healthcare. They are ROBBING my family and getting away with it.

I had surgery on my knee in 2013 that involved billings for the surgeon, the surgery center, an MRI provider and a anesthesiologist. I paid my the bills from the four providers in full fully expecting that I had paid my deductible and taken care of the matter. I had a minor dermatology procedure performed 3 months latter and the dermatologist’s office sent me a bill saying that United told them that I hadn’t paid my deductible. My deductible was $750.00 and I paid $2032.00 out of pocket for my knee surgery which should have satisfied my deductible. I had to call United 3 times before I was able to speak with a representative that was able to make some sense of the problem. He told me that United had made some mistakes in applying my payments which caused them to make mistakes in telling the medical providers how much I owned for my portion of the costs. He said ” I’m sorry for the mistake” but that left me with the responsibility of contacting the providers to find out who I had overpaid and who I hadn’t. So far, I’ve only been able to get one provider to acknowledge that I over paid them when the United Representative told me that I had overpaid two. I may never receive the total amount I overpaid for my deductible and coinsurance due to United Healthcare’s mistakes. I have made a complaint to my state’s insurance commission.

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, it cannot be proven (unless you’re Google) whether United Healthcare, an agency working for them or someone else has done this, but it’s definitely helping UHC to rank UNFAIRLY in Search Engines! Look at my findings below and decide for yourself. I am NOT claiming that UHC did this!

If you are not familiar with how Google works, it’s a system which evaluates how many websites link to another site and calculates the target website’s rank based on that. So, for example, if United Healthcare wanted to rank well in Google for, let’s say “health insurance”, they would need other websites to link to them using this phrase as anchor text.

Generally, people link to reputable company websites because they like their services. United Healthcare is NOT a reputable company so what do you think they might need to do to create “high quality” links back to their website?

Buying Links From SPAM Blogs

A very popular tactic utilized by lowlife spammers – create spam blogs or rent them from other spammers in an effort to create more links. Example: http://wearetheanswer.org/ is a spam blog which looks like crap but has very high link popularity – Google might consider it a high quality link! What does UHC have to do with it? Here’s a screenshot from the site:

SPAMMING High Profile Blogs With Useless Comments

This one is PRICELESS! There are countless instances of SPAM comments linking to UHC dating as far back as several years. Whoever is doing this has been working the system big time! Let’s take a look at some of the gems!

http://www.usingmac.com/2008/1/7/mac-special-characters – Double trouble!

http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/spyware-found-3-major-mac-download-sites-060110 – “Larz the Real Guy” strikes again!

More samples – just search for the phrase “health insurance” and you’ll find the links (from HUNDREDS MORE!)
– http://www.thebeehive.org/jobs/job-articles/dealing-layoff
– http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/protect_your_pc_from_guys_like_this?page=0,4
– http://becomehealthynow.com/vblite/showthread.php?t=977

Could You Report United Healthcare to Google?

If you think that United Healthcare is crossing the line with these Immoral(illegal?) Marketing Practices you are free to report them to GOOGLE! If enough people send reports, United Healthcare might stop ranking so highly when employers are looking for health insurance options in Google!