UnitedHealthcare must permanently rescind ER policy, hospitals demand

While UnitedHealthcare paused a controversial emergency room coverage policy, hospitals want it "immediately and permanently" rescinded.

On June 10, UnitedHealthcare said it would delay the policy until at least the end of the national public health emergency. The ER policy could have led to retroactive denials for ER claims that UnitedHealthcare considered nonemergent. UnitedHealthcare made the move to temporarily delay the policy "based on feedback from our provider partners and discussions with medical societies."

In a June 10 letter from the Federation of American Hospitals, President and CEO Chip Kahn wrote that while the delay is appreciated, "this temporary pause does not address the underlying policy that poses harmful and unnecessary risk to patients, regardless of its date of implementation."

The American Hospital Association also called for the policy's full reversal in a June 10 statement sent to Becker's.

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