UnitedHealthcare, the largest health insurance company in the US, is allegedly using a deeply flawed AI algorithm to override doctors’ judgments and wrongfully deny critical health coverage to elderly patients. This has resulted in patients being kicked out of rehabilitation programs and care facilities far too early, forcing them to drain their life savings to obtain needed care that should be covered under their government-funded Medicare Advantage Plan.
I have UHC through my employer. Apparently through their app, they have an incentive program where they subsidize a smart watch/activity tracker and then actually pay you for meeting goals, like number of steps per day, getting good sleep, etc. I didn’t bother with it, joking to my coworkers that it would probably keep track of when I don’t meet my goals and hold it against me. Now I have no doubt all that data is feeding their AI.
