A surgeon is making a bombshell claim that an insurance company tried to deny a patient coverage while they were on the operating table.
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In a TikTok, surgeon Elisabeth Potter claimed that UnitedHealthcare tried to deny coverage for a cancer patient while she was in the middle of an operation. Potter said that she was performing breast reconstructive surgery on the patient when the healthcare giant allegedly called the hospital.
Potter said that she got the call while in the operating room. UnitedHealthcare allegedly pressed Potter to take the call and stop the surgery in the middle of the operating room. A representative allegedly said they needed more info on the patient's diagnosis to see "if her inpatient stay should be justified."
Surgeon Puts Insurance Company On Blast
Potter said in the video, "I was like, 'Do you understand that she's asleep right now. And she has breast cancer?' and the gentleman said, 'I don't actually. That's a different department that would know that information. I've never had this happen before. It's out of control. Insurance is out of control. I have no other words."
Meanwhile, she caption the video with, "I just performed two bilateral DIEP flap surgeries and two bilateral tissue expander surgeries. During one of the DIEP cases, I was interrupted by a call from United Healthcare. While the patient was already asleep on the operating table. They demanded information about her diagnosis and inpatient stay justification."
She went on to say, "I had to scrub out mid-surgery to call United. Only to find that the person on the line didn't even have access to the patient's full medical information. Despite the procedure already being pre-approved."
Potter claims she was performing the breast reconstruction surgery after mastectomy. As you can imagine, stopping mid-surgery can increase the risk of complications occurring. However, UnitedHealthcare clarified in a statement that Potter's statements are not true.
The company said it would never ask a doctor to step out mid-surgery.
It said, "There are no insurance-related circumstances that would require a physician to step out of surgery and it would create potential safety risks if they were to do so. We did not ask nor would ever expect a physician to interrupt patient care to answer a call and we will be following up with the provider and hospital to understand why these unorthodox actions were taken."
