Hawking Health Conspiracies; How UnitedHealth Pressures Docs; Hospital’s High Prices

Welcome to the latest edition of Investigative Roundup, highlighting some of the best investigative reporting on healthcare each week.

Cashing In on Medical Conspiracies

A Canadian businessman once considered a rising star quit his family’s business to pursue opportunities rooted in conspiracy theories, according to CBC News.

Foster Coulson once said a meeting with Vladimir Zelenko, MD — the late doctor best known for pushing hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19 — “changed the trajectory of my life.” After that meeting, he stepped away from a lucrative family business in aerial firefighting to start a vitamin supplement company, invest in an anti-vaccine dating site, and launch a coffee brand for “anti-woke” consumers. He also took an ownership stake in Zelenko’s supplement company before expanding the business to offer a range of wellness products and services.

That business, now called The Wellness Company, has employed several doctors who have been accused of spreading medical misinformation, according to CBC.

Coulson has become an important player in the effort to merge the wellness industry with far-right political groups. His Vancouver-based company now funds many online brands promoting “medical disinformation, xenophobia and misogyny,” the article stated.

While Coulson denies endorsing any particular viewpoint, he claims he is creating “a parallel economy” for people who believe their freedom is under threat from scientists.

How UnitedHealth Pressures Doctors

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, UnitedHealth managers reportedly pressured doctors into scheduling appointments with Medicare Advantage patients to generate more revenue, according to STAT.

Internal documents and emails obtained by STAT from 2020 and 2021 showed the company encouraged its doctors to add as many diagnoses as possible for these patients, as Medicare Advantage pays insurers more for sicker patients, according to the investigation. UnitedHealth reportedly offered its physicians bonuses to do so, but also used peer pressure and guilt.

Emails encouraged physicians to schedule appointments on weekends, and offer patients $75 gift cards for completing visits. UnitedHealth also promoted a competition among doctors for $10,000 bonuses, according to the investigation.

STAT did not name the practice that provided the documents, but noted that physicians at five other UnitedHealthcare/Optum sites described similar practices. The message to these physicians was to conduct more visits with older patients, document their illnesses, and drive up the company’s revenue, they stated.

Hospital’s Aggressive Billing Tactics

Despite being located in the most affordable metro area in the U.S., Indiana-based Parkview Health has been in the top 10% of the most expensive hospitals in the country for 10 of the last 13 years, according to The Guardian.

Hospital executives used certain billing tactics to establish market dominance in the region and to press its residents — who have no better healthcare alternatives — for as much revenue as possible, the investigation found. These tactics included an intentional effort to grossly inflate patient bills, in some cases more than doubling the standard billing rates, the investigation found.

One uninsured patient, a victim of a motorcycle accident, required extensive surgeries and rehabilitation services at Parkview Health. Shortly after being discharged from the hospital, the patient’s family received a bill for more than $600,000.

The family hired a lawyer and auditor to help dispute the size of the charges. The auditor found that the “fair and reasonable value” of the services provided to the patient should total $255,903.45, or just 40% of the original bill, the outlet reported.

The family of the patient eventually settled with Parkview Health for an undisclosed sum and signed a confidentiality agreement, but the billing challenges they faced were far from unusual for patients at Parkview Health, according to the report.