In February, one of the largest conglomerates in the country — a corporate insurance company that brought in more than $371 billion last year alone — failed to properly guard against known cyber threats to the U.S. healthcare system. This failure left some patients unable to access necessary care, like critical prescription medications, and is still impacting providers today.
As a result, prescriptions for life-saving medications were delayed. High out-of-pocket costs were pushed even higher. Many providers did not receive payments for their services and had to scramble to find ways to keep their doors open and pay their employees. This came as recent reports show that hospitals’ cash on hand was already down 25 percent compared to 2022 – and that was before accounting for the full impact of the cyber breach.
Lawmakers held hearings in both chambers to question UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty on the cyberattack and the company’s response. During the proceedings, lawmakers rightly highlighted the significant harm the situation caused both patients and providers.
U.S. House Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Morgan Griffith (R-VA-09) noted that, “Many patients were left having to pay large amounts of money out of pocket for their medications,” while U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) echoed this sentiment, remarking to Witty that “your company, on your watch, let the country down…”
UHG did not move quickly enough to support patients and providers – echoing a phenomenon that appears over and over in American healthcare: patients and providers are suffering because corporate insurers are focused on their bottom line. Indeed, many corporate insurers profit directly from practices and tactics that hurt patients and the hospital care they rely on.
Broadly, corporate insurers regularly reject claims for necessary care and reports have shown they deny nearly one in five claims that meet Medicare coverage rules. They overwhelm patients and providers in burdensome red tape, including policies like prior authorization, which can delay and often deny medically necessary care. Nine in ten physicians say that insurers’ profit-maximizing bureaucracy, such as excessive prior authorization, costs real patients their health and sometimes their lives. Clearly, policymakers should be deeply skeptical of these corporate insurers’ latest efforts to further slash provider reimbursement, which is a direct cut to the resources needed to care for patients.
Corporate insurers are using their historic profits to lobby for legislation that would cause substantial harm to patients and providers. They are a major player behind well-funded Beltway campaigns pushing huge Medicare cuts that are marketed as “site-neutral” policies. These proposals fail to recognize the unique, complex care that hospitals provide and would result in further cuts to patient care. Hospitals are already reimbursed just 82 cents for every dollar spent on Medicare patients. If policymakers were to listen to insurers’ lobbying and make further cuts, more local hospitals would be pushed toward a financial precipice, with no option besides reducing the kinds of care they provide or even closing their doors entirely.
Hospitals and health systems are relied on heavily by patients in rural and urban underserved areas — 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Staying true to their mission, hospitals and health systems provide the most complex, coordinated, high-quality care for patients nationwide. They also serve as the safety net for communities that may otherwise lose access to care. For instance, hospitals are 2.5 times more likely than other entities to acquire rural physician practices – preserving access to care that is at risk of disappearing.
Healthcare costs in America are a problem that needs tackling. But the answer isn’t slashing funding for patient care and pushing more hospitals over the brink.
Policymakers must not defund front-line patient care. They need to bolster the valuable care that hospitals provide. And our leaders must hold corporate insurers accountable for all the ways they make care less accessible — from the ongoing fallout from the February breach to insurers’ routine tactics that hurt patients on a daily basis.