UnitedHealthcare, the largest health insurance company in the US, is allegedly using a deeply flawed AI algorithm to override doctors’ judgments and wrongfully deny critical health coverage to elderly patients. This has resulted in patients being kicked out of rehabilitation programs and care facilities far too early, forcing them to drain their life savings to obtain needed care that should be covered under their government-funded Medicare Advantage Plan.
This doesn’t sound flawed at all. It sounds exactly as intended.
For the life of me I cannot understand why we tolerate this criminal behavior.
Because no one who can do anything about it gives a shit.
Our fucking Healthcare especially Medicare shouldn’t be in the hands of a private corporation. Fuck private insurance Fuck insurance totally.
All insurance is for is taking our money while denying us our coverage.
My company is testing an GPT implementation that automatically updates and resubmits these claims that were denied by insurance company AIs (united is not the only one)
It’s still wild to me that one of the first places we have AIs battling each other is health insurance claims
It may be wild, but - unfortunately - it also makes perfect sense for the world we live in. Capitalism, ho!
I have UHC through my employer. Apparently through their app, they have an incentive program where they subsidize a smart watch/activity tracker and then actually pay you for meeting goals, like number of steps per day, getting good sleep, etc. I didn’t bother with it, joking to my coworkers that it would probably keep track of when I don’t meet my goals and hold it against me. Now I have no doubt all that data is feeding their AI.
I’d get that and strap it to my vibrator and call it treadmill time.
Doubt they are the only one. It’s a common complaint about most insurance companies. I’ve heard so many doctors complain about how much time they spend telling the insurance company that yes, the patient really has a disease/issue and needs the treatment they are suggesting. They don’t single out an insurance company.
Sounds like someone optimized their models for profit.
