July 27, 2024

How UnitedHealth harnesses its physician empire to squeeze profits out of patients

By adeptly navigating the Medicare Advantage payment system and amassing control over doctors, UnitedHealth has squeezed potentially tens of billions of extra dollars from taxpayers over the past decade, according to STAT estimations based on federal data. Read more.

By Bob Herman, Tara Bannow, Casey Ross, and Lizzy Lawrence

Watch: How insurers use doctors to profit off medical codes

The sicker the patient is, the higher their risk score, and the bigger the check insurers receive from the government. Watch here.

By Hyacinth Empinado

The bright white dot in the larger of these MRI images is Stage One breast cancer. (Adobe)

Breast cancer study reveals a paradox of mastectomy

"If you get a contralateral breast cancer, your risk of dying goes up. But preventing it doesn't improve your survival," said Steven Narod, a breast cancer researcher and physician at Women's College Hospital in Toronto and the lead author on the study. Read more.

By Angus Chen

More great reads from STAT this week

How to prevent more killings of defenseless Black women. Sonya Massey's killing is a significant example of the ways the "pet to threat" phenomenon transcends the workplace, emergency physicians argue in a First Opinion essay.
A preview of Neurocrine's muscarinic drug readout. Drugs targeting muscarinic receptors could usher in the first new class of medicines for the treatment of schizophrenia in decades.
Kamala Harris is left of the president on health care. Biden's endorsement of the vice president to replace him as the Democratic Party's nominee underscores the rise of a more liberal approach to health care policy.