Some of you may already be following the jaw-dropping and fume-eliciting story of Dr. Elisabeth Potter, who claims to have had to scrub out of surgery to answer a call by United Healthcare, in order to cover her patient’s surgery.
If you aren’t familiar, we wrote about it last week, and you can read about it in Scrubbing Out for Insurance Approval: When Will It End?
Since that post, Dr. Potter has updated her followers on Instagram, writing that “UnitedHealthcare didn’t stop at calling me during surgery. Now, they’ve sent me a legal threat—and even worse? They ended up denying my cancer patient’s hospital stay. Exactly what I was afraid would happen.”
You can take a listen on her post:
View this post on Instagram
Dr. Potter writes, “Let me be clear: I stand by everything I said. I told the truth. I was honest about what’s happening in our healthcare system. And I will not be silenced by legal threats when it comes to advocating for my patients and my ability to care for them.”
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A few of your comments, in response to her post:
- If UnitedHealthcare is saying this is false, they should release all the recorded phone conversations pertaining to this and let the public decide. I believe the Dr, because if you watch the original video, she is clearly upset about what happened that day and it doesn’t seem ‘made up’
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The fact they’re sending you legal threats for doing your job tells us everything we need to know
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Looks like their new CEO is trying to fix their image problem by threatening providers to silence them rather than fixing the actual problem. But that would cut into their profits so of course this is the route they go.
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That attorney’s time probably cost UHC more than your patient’s overnight care.
"That attorney’s time probably cost UHC more than your patient’s overnight care." - Instagram comment on Dr. Elisabeth Potter's post.
A few colleagues stepped up on social media, to support Dr. Potter.
Dr. Kelly Killeen, for example, took to Youtube, to post a video about the incident:
Another physician, on Instagram, asked colleagues to “tag” (which simply means call attention to) the American Medical Association, as well as the American Society of Plastic Surgeons:
View this post on Instagram
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Incredibly, billionaire and CEO of Pershing Square, Bill Ackman announced through X, after digging into the issue, that he will cover the legal expenses of Dr. Potter, in a post you can read for yourself, here:
I just spoke at length to @EPotterMD and I have asked her for all of the supporting documents, emails, call records, etc which she has agreed to provide. I found her and her story totally credible. @UHC has publically called her a liar, and UHC’s general counsel has told my CLO… https://t.co/3WvHiF7Xoi
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) February 7, 2025
Don’t forget to tell us what you think of this developing story, in one of the Facebook communities we host (we even have 2 doctors-only groups called SoMeDocs and Doctor Side Venture).
