Protecting Our Healthcare Heroes

TeamHealth continues the fight to defend our Healthcare Heroes.

Beginning Tuesday, November 2nd, three of TeamHealth’s Nevada-based affiliates (Team Physicians of Nevada, Ruby Crest Emergency Physicians and Fremont Emergency Services) take on UnitedHealthcare in the 8th District Court of Clark County, Nevada. At stake is the very ability of heroic frontline healthcare providers to get necessary reimbursements from large profitable insurers to cover the cost of the lifesaving care they provide.

How we got here.

UnitedHealthcare prioritized profits.

From the very beginning, UnitedHealthcare’s (United) goal has been to reap larger profits by artificially and fraudulently reducing payments to physicians.

Over the past five years, United devised and implemented a meticulous “shared savings” scheme to attract employers to purchase ASO (employee-sponsored) health plans.

Lowering Reimbursements & Terminating Contracts. Under this shared savings plan, United was incentivized to drop reimbursements as low as possible or kick doctors out-of-network. United would then collect profits off the difference between billed charges and reimbursement paid, forcing providers to make up the cost of the care they provided.

Manipulation Behind-the-Scenes. United worked with third-party claim administrator Data iSight to create a faulty database to justify artificially low payment rates. United also worked hand-in-hand with Zack Cooper of Yale University to develop so-called “independent research” to motivate Congress to push legislation giving large profitable insurers more power over frontline providers.

Over the following weeks and months, TeamHealth’s case will prove that United was orchestrating this scheme at the expense of frontline healthcare providers and their patients amid a devastating pandemic.

Why you should care.

TeamHealth is fighting for doctors and patients.

Despite United’s scheme, TeamHealth has steadfastly refused to balance bill patients. Instead, we have taken United to court. The outcome of this case is critical to the long-term stability of our healthcare system. TeamHealth and our affiliates are fighting to ensure that clinicians are reimbursed for the quality care they provide and that patients won’t receive balance bills driven by United’s insatiable need for more profits.

Compromising the quality of emergency medical care in a natural disaster, a mass casualty event, or in any community is a risk no one can afford. This is why TeamHealth is standing up against United and can be counted on to respond to the needs of patients and communities in an emergency. See that heroic response in action:

Responding to a Mass Shooting: Here in Nevada, our clinicians were among the first to treat victims in an overcrowded emergency room following the deadliest mass shooting in American history at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival. (Watch Video)

Helping Victims of Human Trafficking: TeamHealth clinicians have played a key role in identifying and assisting human trafficking victims when they are brought into a hospital setting. (Watch Video)

Keeping Hospitals Fully Staffed Following Hurricanes: In 2017, TeamHealth clinicians helped keep hospitals open and fully staffed so that the victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricane Irma in Florida could continue to receive the care they desperately needed. (Watch Video: Hurricane Harvey) (Watch Video: Hurricane Irma)

We are fighting for the more than 16,000 TeamHealth clinicians who provide lifesaving and emergency care for patients when they need it the most.

What you can do about it.

Tune in and stay tuned.

Tune in at the official live stream on the website of the Eighth Judicial District Court in Clark County, Nevada listed below. Return back to this page to learn about developments in the case and our clinicians’ efforts to stand up to the healthcare industry’s multi-billion dollar behemoth, United Healthcare.

Case Name: Fremont Emergency Services (Mandavia), et al. vs. UnitedHealth Group, Inc et al.,

Case Number: A-19-792978-B

Livestream Link: https://bluejeans.com/541907772/9730

Meeting ID: 541 907 772

A statement from
Leif Murphy, CEO TeamHealth

Read Now

 

Trial Updates

 

At the conclusion of the trial, the trial exhibits will be made available on this site subject to any limiting orders of the court.