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.”
My partner had this same thing happen. She needed a neurosurgery to install a nerve stimulator in her neck. Her insurance approved a surgery to implant a test device, but then when it was determined it did solve her issues, denied the surgery for the permanent stimulator, forcing her neurosurgeon to write to them to get it approved. Then, during the surgery, they sent another denial. Fortunately, U of M is fantastic, and their hospital just covered the cost of the surgery due to the level of bullshit the insurance company pulled. Otherwise she would have ended up with multiple scars on her head and neck, and nothing to show for it, other than continuing nerve pain.