More bad news for UnitedHealth
As reported in a recent article in Modern Healthcare, two Ohio pension funds filed a shareholder lawsuit against UnitedHealth Group, Minneapolis, for allegedly allowing its chairman and chief executive officer, William McGuire, to dictate his own compensation through the "secret manipulation" of stock-option grants over the past decade.
The lawsuit claims that UnitedHealth's directors breached their fiduciary duty and misled shareholders by allowing McGuire and other executives to set the grant dates of their stock options, often retroactively, in order to maximize the options' value when exercised later. At Dec. 31, 2005, McGuire held $1.6 billion in unexercised options. Earlier this month, the insurer announced that it was restating up to $286 million in net income for the past three years because of errors in its reporting of option grants to regulators. UnitedHealth has lost more than $16 billion of its market value since mid-March.
This federal lawsuit is only one of several that have been filed or will be filed against UnitedHealth.
I have to say that it couldn’t happen to a more deserving organization.
Our termination date with United Healthcare was July 9th. With losing more than $16 billion dollars of its value since March, it doesn’t seem like they are going to be any friendlier to physicians, patients or companies who choose them.
I hope more physicians bail out and finally begin taking back some control of healthcare.
The lawsuit claims that UnitedHealth's directors breached their fiduciary duty and misled shareholders by allowing McGuire and other executives to set the grant dates of their stock options, often retroactively, in order to maximize the options' value when exercised later. At Dec. 31, 2005, McGuire held $1.6 billion in unexercised options. Earlier this month, the insurer announced that it was restating up to $286 million in net income for the past three years because of errors in its reporting of option grants to regulators. UnitedHealth has lost more than $16 billion of its market value since mid-March.
This federal lawsuit is only one of several that have been filed or will be filed against UnitedHealth.
I have to say that it couldn’t happen to a more deserving organization.
Our termination date with United Healthcare was July 9th. With losing more than $16 billion dollars of its value since March, it doesn’t seem like they are going to be any friendlier to physicians, patients or companies who choose them.
I hope more physicians bail out and finally begin taking back some control of healthcare.
posted by Anonymous at 6:30 AM
9 Comments:
Better watch out you have already dropped several insurance companys. And I heard another is on the way? You make light of this BUT the people you are hurting is your patients!!!!!! They are the ones that have to go out find another doctor and switch all thier records I know because I had to do it at PA and I am sure many others will follow. You have stated on this blog many patients agree with you and have stayed with you BUT you dropped UHC on July 9th so I don't believe you realize how have many patients are going to leave just yet. It seems odd to me, you and runawaydoc are the only doctors on this blog writing about the hospital administrator insurance and drug companys did you ever stop to think MAYBE YOU HAVE THE PROBLEM! I know you are going to say you do with the way the hospital and insurance companys are ran. That is the easy way out. Why don't you GROW UP AND BE A MAN and stop whinnying about something you can't control. Or maybe you could apply for a hospital administrator job at the new hospital to be built in Clark Co.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Many doctors and others are reading the blog and just choosing not to comment. Watch the counter on the main screen. There are lots more hits than comments.
Once again, we have a flat fee in our office for patients with no insurance or with other hardships. That is $30 for the office visit. We can perform labs at our cost which we do routinely for these patients.
We are working with United patients and would work with anyone else that has special circumstances.
$30 is pretty reasonable, HB. Actually, seems cheap to me considering the cost of everything. Good job.
Are you sure that you are a Republican????(scratching my head)
What criteria has to be met in order to qualify for the $30.00 office visit and the reduction in lab costs. I am very interested, because you might have worked yourself out of a paying job. I wouldn't let this secret out because everyone in town might descend on PA. Maybe Yellow Ambulance can just drop the non-payors off at your place instead of the Emergency Room. I would be interested in knowing just how you assertain whether a person can pay or not. The 1st. thing a patient has to do is fill out a form listing their Insurance Credentials. I would also be interested in how many patients you have personally seen that were not able to pay and therefore you accepted as a patient and are only charging $30.00. I doubt very much if anyone was able to get thru the inner door. Their are many people that have "special" circumstances
but I bet you don't waste much time with them. I know for a fact that you don't spend much time with the paying patients, so I would not expect you to spend more time with the "special", but maybe again that is why you want to raise our fees, to cover all those "special circumstance" patients. If you keep dropping insurance companies, in time all your remaining patients might have "special circumstances"!
All five of the doctors in our practice do this.
We truly do accept patients with any and all circumstances and are willing to work with any of them.
But we aren't mind-readers and only know of the problem if patients inform us.
We also provide sample medication for many, many patients.
Health Blogger I can personally attest that you and your wife are Saints. Keep up the good work.
I would offer to the anonymous critic that I would be happy to talk personally and/or by email for a resolution to your issues at any time if you so desire.
I regret you have had a bad experience and I am sure we could come to a better understanding if given a chance.
Good Job Dr. Eichenberger! I'm impressed with your ability to attempt to work out differences.
If you are referring to my posting I have no differences that need to be worked out. I thought the purpose of this blog was to bring informative insight about healthcare. I enjoy reading your articles that address these issues.
But if you review your posts, the majority of them are attacks against Hospital Administration and Insurance Companys. I am just stating my thoughts on the subjects, just as you are stating yours. I suppose my postings speak for myself, just as yours speaks for your beliefs. If you think I have offended you by posting my views, you might consider what yours have done also.
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