Absolutely no one,” said one current UnitedHealth nurse practitioner who recently filed a congressional complaint about the nursing home program.
UnitedHealth said the suggestion that its employees have prevented hospital transfers “is verifiably false”.
It said its bonus payments to nursing homes help prevent unnecessary hospitalizations that are costly and dangerous to patients and that its partnerships with nursing homes improve health outcomes.
To reduce residents’ hospital visits, UnitedHealth has offered nursing homes an array of financial sweeteners that sounded more like they came from stockbrokers than medical professionals.
Over the past seven years, the company has shelled out “Premium Dividend” and “Shared Savings” payments that boosted nursing homes’ bottom lines.
It was a measure of the rate that nursing homes sent their residents to the hospital.
UnitedHealth declined to answer questions about how much it has paid out to nursing homes through the secret contract clauses. »