Optum Is Not Your Insurer's Partner, It Is Your Insurer
UnitedHealthcare pays Optum-owned practices 17% more than nearby practices, and up to 61% more where it dominates the market. Same parent company, both sides.
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UnitedHealthcare pays Optum-owned practices 17% more than nearby practices, and up to 61% more where it dominates the market. Same parent company, both sides.
Marketplace plans must offer a routine mental health appointment within 10 business days, 90% of the time — and New York's rule now hits most commercial plans.
Medical and surgical visits pay clinicians 22% more than mental health visits on the same commercial insurance plan — 70% more at the top of the pay range.
Insurers denied 19% of in-network claims in 2024 — about 85 million. Fewer than 1% were appealed. Reviewers who re-checked denials overturned six in ten.
A licensed therapist can wait 90 to 120 days before an insurer lets them bill, per the AMA. That wait thins networks and breeds the ghost networks patients hit.
A company most patients have never heard of makes coverage decisions for about 100 million insured Americans — 1 in 3 people with insurance — across 100+ insurers.
79% of physicians say prior authorization can push patients to abandon treatment. In mental health, the paperwork isn't a side effect of coverage. It's the point.
In 2026, Georgia fined insurers nearly $25 million for mental health parity violations and collected $0. For insurers, the coverage gap is the product.
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