A breast cancer surgeon had to “scrub out mid-surgery” to call a UnitedHealthcare representative because the insurance giant questioned whether the procedure she was in the middle of performing was really necessary.
Dr. Elisabeth Potter posted her story to Instagram this week, and the post has gotten more than 221,000 likes.
Still wearing her scrub cap, Dr. Potter began her video saying, “It’s 2025, and navigating insurance has somehow just gotten worse.”
I don’t know any surgeons personally, not any more, but my ex-wife was an RN that worked exclusively in surgery. I can’t see any of those people stepping out of a surgery for a call from the insurance company. Hell, I called her mid-surgery, thinking I was having a heart attack and she hesitated to leave. And she was just the nurse!
Most of those guys were seriously crusty. Just can’t see a surgeon saying, “Gosh! I have to bail mid-procedure and take this insurance call!” For that matter, I can’t see anyone who would dare interrupt a working surgeon for anything short of a drastic family matter, maybe not even then. Something smells about this story.
It happened to my partner as well. I put most of it in its own comment, but she found out from her surgery team, as she was waking up afterward, that they had been told mid-procedure that the surgery wouldn’t be covered.
Like what bullshit is that. Once the surgery has started I think you’ve lost the ability to deny anything.
Exactly. You approved it, already. You can’t then un-approve it once things are rolling, based on your own say so.
You can’t wait for insurance approval on certain procedures - appendicitis, for instance. You’ve got to file the claim and hope they approve it.
And insurance companies love to slow roll claims approval, particularly in situations where saying “we need more time to consider” means a higher likelihood of the patient dying before receiving care. Liver cancer is a common case.
I’m… Aware. This whole subject was about over they did pre-approve though. Then changed their mind…
Imagine a surgeon scrubbed out of surgery mid-way, to talk to an overly-entitled bean-counter about the necessity of a surgical procedure that’s in progress.
I imagine that call to have a tone about as blistering as the surface of the sun.