--- title: "UnitedHealthcare Calls Doctor Mid Surgery To Ask If Her Patient’s Overnight Stay Is Necessary" description: "A UnitedHealthcare rep called a surgeon in the middle of a procedure to ask if her breast cancer patient's overnight stay was \"justified.\"" date: "2025-01-09" modified: "2025-01-09" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/uhc-called-surgeon-mid-surgery" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "brian thompson" - "insurance" - "surgery" - "unitedhealthcare" --- # UnitedHealthcare Calls Doctor Mid Surgery To Ask If Her Patient’s Overnight Stay Is Necessary ![A UnitedHealthcare rep called a surgeon in the middle of a procedure to ask if her breast cancer patient's overnight stay was "justified."]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* Despite being the subject of a full month of scrutiny in the wake of its CEO's murder, UnitedHealthcare is, somehow, still going to extreme lengths to [deny health insurance claims]() — and one surgeon has taken to social media to speak out about it. In a [post on TikTok](), Texas surgeon Elisabeth Potter was flabbergasted by a recent exchange she'd had with a UHC representative who called her when she was in the middle of a procedure to ask if the patient's overnight stay was necessary. "It's 2025," the Austin-based plastic surgeon declared, "and insurance just keeps getting worse." UnitedHealthcare has become the epicenter of a fie[rce debate]() surrounding the systematic denial of health insurance claims in the US. Case in point, the company went as far as to [deploy an error-prone AI algorithm]() in 2023 to override claims to elderly patients that had been approved by their doctors. https://www.tiktok.com/@drelisabethpotter/video/7457293170678762798 During a breast reconstruction procedure, Potter said she was contacted in the operating room and told that a UHC rep had called and needed to speak to her right away about the patient she was operating on. She scrubbed out and gave the "gentleman," a call — only to be questioned about the woman's diagnosis and "whether her inpatient stay should be justified." "I was like, 'do you understand that she's asleep right now and she has breast cancer?'" Potter recounted. "And the gentleman said, 'actually, I don't — that's a different department that would know that information.'" Clearly perturbed, Potter told the representative that the overnight post-surgery stay was indeed necessary — and that moreover, UHC should already have that information because the surgery had already been approved. "'I need to go back,'" she recalled telling the man, "'and be with my patient now.'" The incident highlights a fundamentally deficient and notoriously greedy health insurance system in the United States. UnitedHealthcare, the country's largest health insurer, has played a major role, garnering a reputation for doing everything in its power to save money by denying coverage. As Potter explained, she'd never had anything quite like that happen during her career as a surgeon. For [all the stories]() we've heard about [cruel claim denials]() in the month since Brian Thompson's murder, the incident stands out. "It's out of control," the surgeon concluded. "Insurance is out of control. I have no other words." **More on UHC:** [*Americans Point Out That UnitedHealthcare Tried to Kill Them First*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()