UnitedHealth overcharged cancer patients for drugs by over 1k%
UnitedHealth, employer of slain exec Brian Thompson, found to have overcharged cancer patients for drugs by over 1,000%
UnitedHealth, employer of slain exec Brian Thompson, found to have overcharged cancer patients for drugs by over 1,000%
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Uh...what? Why is the insurance company billing the patient for medication?
Insurance picks up the tab for the meds at the pharmacy, and the patient pays the difference between that and the full cost.
It's probably just an American thing.
The hospital overcharges, because the think the insurance will cover it and the insurer passes the cost on to the customer.
Something like that. I'm not an expert on this, but I know it's possible.
Insurance doesn't usually act as a middleman in the transaction. The patient is booked for the extra straight from the hospital only after the insurance company pays their part.
But I can't read the damn article to figure out what is going on here
It's basically nothing new, pharmaceutical companies are charging 1000% markup on the cost to produce drugs. I'm sure the story is supposed to be that United health isn't covering any of that cost, but they sure beat around the bush saying it. A pharmaceutical conglomerate (PBM) is accusing people of Cherry picking data and that the median out of pocket cost for medicines are $5. Considering how cheap most non-life saving drugs are, it's a bit of a cop out since we're talking specifically about cancer treatments, not high doses of ibuprofen. Which they're probably also charging 1000% or greater of wholesale, because it probably costs a few pennies to manufacture those medications.
It's not beating around the bush, the first paragraph that I can actually read explicitly claims UH is charging the customers. Not that they aren't covering costs. Either it's deliberately lying, or something weird is going on with that whole transaction process.
I'm giving you a paraphrase of the rest of the article that you've already said you couldn't read.
here is the archive link in case you want to read it without my poor paraphrasing.
