Here’s To Getting Assuredly Good Health

An unusual amount of excitement in the health news world this week, with health insurance in the spotlight:

Deny, Delay, Depose?

Insurance company UnitedHealthcare, which used AI with a 90% error rate to deny insurance claims (of which, disproportionately denying insurance claims of the elderly), has come under extra public scrutiny this week for its recent-years business practices:

❝Nearly 1 in 5 insured adults experienced claim denials during a 12-month period.

Those with job-based insurance or Affordable Care Act policies ran into this problem about twice as often as those covered by Medicare or Medicaid❞

…although, the company has dramatically increased its care denials for Medicare Advantage enrollees, doubling the rate of denials as it implemented its new, automated denials process.

Anesthesiologist Dr. Brain Schmutzler noted:

❝We have a bigger issue with the insurance companies in general, who, essentially, it’s their job to make money, not to actually pay for health care❞

And in those cases where healthcare is not denied, it is often dangerously delayed, as insurance companies can stall for time to decide whether they’re going to pay or not.

One useful take-away from all of this is that if your insurance claim is denied, consider fighting it, as often they can be overturned.

Specifically, it can be good to insist on knowing who (named persons) was involved in the denial process, and their qualifications. Once upon a time, this was mostly unqualified interns, which prompted insurance companies to reverse the denial rather than admit that; nowadays it’s mostly AI, which many companies can hope will shield them from culpability—either way, fighting for one’s rights can often be successful.

Read in full: Killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO prompts flurry of stories on social media over denied insurance claims

Related: With Medical Debt Burdening Millions, a Financial Regulator Steps In to Help

Rest Easy

Health insurer Elevance Health (formerly Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield), had last month announced plans to limit its coverage for anesthesia used in operations, whereby they would pay for only a certain amount of anesthetic, and if the procedure was still ongoing when that amount had been used, then well, you were on your own.

However, on Thursday afternoon and allegedly completely coincidentally in the wake of the Wednesday assassination of the CEO who oversaw the denial of so many health insurance claims, this decision to limit paying for anesthesia was reversed, retracted, and they are now doing their best to downplay what the proposal would have meant for anesthesiologists and patients:

Read in full: Insurance company halts plan to put time limits on coverage for anesthesia during surgery

Related: The Insider’s Guide To Making Hospital As Comfortable As Possible ← an anesthesiologist’s tips

Getting a good grip of your health

What’s the best indicator of good health when it comes to age-related health issues? It’s not BMI! Could it be blood pressure? It could, but the news presently is about grip strength.

While training to have an amazing grip (and neglecting all else) will not necessarily increase your general healthspan, having a weak or strong grip is strongly associated with, respectively, having weak or strong general health in later years.

This is because unless someone has been training very unnaturally, grip strength is a good general measure of overall muscle strength, which in turn is a good indicator of metabolic health, as well as bodily robustness.

Read in full: Handgrip strength is a reliable predictor for age-related disease and disability, finds study

Related: Resistance Is Useful! (Especially As We Get Older)

Take care!