UHC Pays Itself More Than Others

[vic120]

The thing with UHC is that AARP membership is required and MANY AARP members believe that somehow AARP has picked the "best" OM, MAP, D company for them (reading the AARP forums about medicare is "interesting" at times). Many of those people are VERY loyal to AARP and would never dream of dropping UHC as their provider because of that loyalty, despite problems.

Also confirmation bias (you only look for things that agree with your opinion/decision and find ways to explain away things that don't) helps keep them as UHC customers (in part due to their AARP loyalty) and not admit to the problems they have with them. Also escalation of commitment (keep committed to a losing cause of action/financial losses because of your investment in that action/decision) can make it harder for some to admit they made a mistake and instead they use confirmation bias to deny reality. These things, I suspect, contributes to their satisfaction levels and loyalty.

Umm there MA plans do NOT require membership

and based on what are you making the claim I am ONLY looking for things that confirm by own bias??

That is a false accusation, You need to walk that back

I only speak from experience, I never said they are without problems only that THIER problem are LESS then other carriers

I still believe Med supp is the better option for more people
But as far as MA goes UHC has the highest customer satisfaction from my clients by far

I have even moved clients off of AARP only to move them back some 2 or so years later
They simply treat their clients better

Also as an agent they can be more difficult than other carriers, but from client perspective on MA plans they are clearly better then others

So why are you accusing me of bias?

 

[somarco]

UHC declines more claims than BCBS

May or may not be true . . . can't say. But what I can say is the negative claim info about UHC, or any carrier, is for MA plans, not Medigap.

@annon123 there are plenty of complaints about many of the ARP endorsed insurance products on the ARP community forum.

Medicare — Resources and Information from AARP

Medicare is a federal health insurance program for people over 65. AARP makes Medicare easy with information on coverage, benefits, costs and more.

www.aarp.org

(membership required if you want to login and see the trash talk)

 

[annon123]

UnitedHealth Group is paying many of its own physician practices significantly more than it pays other doctor groups in the same markets for similar services, undermining competition and driving up costs for consumers and businesses, a STAT investigation reveals.

The analysis examined UnitedHealth's own data, which must be reported to the federal government, showing what its commercial insurance unit pays 16 of its Optum-branded doctor groups for common or expensive services that account for the most spending.

The higher prices reward UnitedHealth at the expense of almost everyone else. Patients end up paying more when they see their doctors and struggle to afford recommended follow-up care. Employers counting on the insurance giant to control ever-rising costs get little or no relief. And doctors trying to compete with UnitedHealth's practices find themselves frozen out of the higher rates the company is paying its own providers, making it more difficult to remain independent and keep their doors open.

UnitedHealth pays its own physician groups considerably more than others, driving up consumer costs and its profits

First-of-its-kind data analysis finds UnitedHealth Group pays many of its own physician practices significantly more than the average it pays other doctors in the same markets

www.statnews.com

This is one of the problems with insurance companies owning related industry "products". When they then spread them across different subsidiaries it is harder to follow the money flow because the accounting for each subsidiary isn't linked to the business crossover between them. In the end the customer pays for this and the company makes more money than if they were all in one subsidiary where this kind of behavior would be harder to hide the money.

 

[EckoRomeo]

The thing with UHC is that AARP membership is required and MANY AARP members believe that somehow AARP has picked the "best" OM, MAP, D company for them (reading the AARP forums about medicare is "interesting" at times). Many of those people are VERY loyal to AARP and would never dream of dropping UHC as their provider because of that loyalty, despite problems.

Also confirmation bias (you only look for things that agree with your opinion/decision and find ways to explain away things that don't) helps keep them as UHC customers (in part due to their AARP loyalty) and not admit to the problems they have with them. Also escalation of commitment (keep committed to a losing cause of action/financial losses because of your investment in that action/decision) can make it harder for some to admit they made a mistake and instead they use confirmation bias to deny reality. These things, I suspect, contributes to their satisfaction levels and loyalty.

When you start of this wrong I can't take the rest of your post serious or informed.

And confirmation bias? LOL...

 

[annon123]

May or may not be true . . . can't say. But what I can say is the negative claim info about UHC, or any carrier, is for MA plans, not Medigap.

@annon123 there are plenty of complaints about many of the ARP endorsed insurance products on the ARP community forum.

Medicare — Resources and Information from AARP

Medicare is a federal health insurance program for people over 65. AARP makes Medicare easy with information on coverage, benefits, costs and more.

www.aarp.org

(membership required if you want to login and see the trash talk)

The other thing I found interesting is that AARP makes about (if I recall correctly without re-reading the article) $230M from memberships and about 1 BILLION from endorsements (UHC, Oak Street Health, also travel and a few other things but most of it is in health care...) These were either 2020 or 2021 fiscal year (they have both a non-profit and for profit arm).

So who is going to pay for that? Those who have insurance through UHC or are patients of Oak Street Health (regardless of whom their insurance is through). UHC pays 4.95% of the premium price for each policy bought to AARP.

OSH heavily targets the dual eligible over those with only MAP or OM in the age 65+ subgroups; they also generally have Humana agents on site with events they run rather than UHC agents which I find "interesting" and pretty exclusively want MAP patients (again preferably dual eligible). Locally OSH has a heavy presence here and provides pretty awful health care mostly by PA's and NP's with only one MD on site at each location (of course medical care in this state is the worst in the nation so that OSH provides poor health care is no surprise). I think they are in around half the states with 100+ clinics and growing. Corporate in Chicago.

I do not know how much OSH pays per patient as I can't find that. The cynical side of me would suspect that OSH was the medical group that AARP could make the most money from per patient in royalties and so that is why they decided to "partner" with them.

Source:

AARP’s Billion-Dollar Bounty - KFF Health News

With its latest venture into primary care clinics, is America’s leading organization for seniors selling its trusted seal of approval?

kffhealthnews.org

 

[annon123]

When you start of this wrong I can't take the rest of your post serious or informed.

And confirmation bias? LOL...

Exactly what do you think is wrong? The amount they make in royalties is documented in the source I posted. That is a credible source (that article also appeared in Forbes Magazine). Other research has documented that AARP members tend to be very loyal to that company and believe AARP has their best interests at heart, even before they are old enough for medicare so there isn't the "have to be an AARP member to get UHC supp, or D" confounding issue.

And those biases have strong support in psychological research with respect to why they exist and how they support choices in the face of negative information, whether or not you agree with them.

 

[EckoRomeo]

Exactly what do you think is wrong? The amount they make in royalties is documented in the source I posted. That is a credible source (that article also appeared in Forbes Magazine). Other research has documented that AARP members tend to be very loyal to that company and believe AARP has their best interests at heart, even before they are old enough for medicare so there isn't the "have to be an AARP member to get UHC supp, D or MAP" confounding issue.

And those biases have strong support in psychological research with respect to why they exist and how they support choices in the face of negative information, whether or not you agree with them.

The part of your post that I highlighted. MAPD's don't require membership to AARP. Hell, most of my UHC's are duals, which isn't even an AARP product.

You're the one with the bias. I gave you actual researched data but you're arguing about some irrelevant AARP membership.

 

[annon123]

The part of your post that I highlighted. MAPD's don't require membership to AARP. Hell, most of my UHC's are duals, which isn't even an AARP product.

You're the one with the bias. I gave you actual researched data but you're arguing about some irrelevant AARP membership.

I am talking specifically about the plans that AARP advertises that they "offer" that has their name attached, all of which require an AARP membership. Those are the plans that pay AARP for the use of their name. UHC's product line is much broader than just what they do with AARP. And you are right, I should have separated out the advantage plans they offer through AARP since membership for those, and only those, isn't required but many AARP members have the AARP UHC MAPs (although AARP still gets the royalty from UHC even if the person has no AARP membership)

 

[straightnochaser]

I am talking specifically about the plans that AARP advertises that they "offer" that has their name attached, all of which require an AARP membership. Those are the plans that pay AARP for the use of their name. UHC's product line is much broader than just what they do with AARP. And you are right, I should have separated out the advantage plans they offer through AARP since membership for those, and only those, isn't required (although AARP still gets the royalty from UHC)

AARP branded MAPD's do not require you to be a member of AARP, nor do the PDP's

 

[EckoRomeo]

I am talking specifically about the plans that AARP advertises that they "offer" that has their name attached, all of which require an AARP membership. Those are the plans that pay AARP for the use of their name. UHC's product line is much broader than just what they do with AARP. And you are right, I should have separated out the advantage plans they offer through AARP since membership for those, and only those, isn't required (although AARP still gets the royalty from UHC)

But we are talking claim denials and PA's... so we are talking about MAPD's...