'Out of control': Cancer surgeon claims UnitedHealthcare questioned her mid-procedure

A breast cancer surgeon had to "scrub out mid-surgery" to call a UnitedHealthcare representative because the insurance giant questioned whether the procedure she was in the middle of performing was really necessary.

Dr. Elisabeth Potter posted her story to Instagram this week, and the post has gotten more than 221,000 likes.

Still wearing her scrub cap, Dr. Potter began her video saying, "It’s 2025, and navigating insurance has somehow just gotten worse."

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She continued, saying that while performing a Deep Inferior Epigastric Perforator, or "DIEP," breast reconstruction for a cancer patient, "I got a phone call into the operating room saying that UnitedHealthcare wanted me to call them about one of the patients who was having surgery today — who's actually asleep, having surgery."

"And, you know, said I had to call 'right now.' So, I scrubbed out of my case and I called UnitedHealthcare, and the gentleman said he needed some information about her. Wanted to know her diagnosis and whether her inpatient stay should be justified. And I was like, 'Do you understand this? She's asleep right now and she has breast cancer?' And the gentleman said, 'Actually, I don't — that's a different department that would know that information.'"

"And I was like, 'Well, she does need to stay overnight tonight, and you have all the information with you because I got approval for this surgery, and I need to go back and be with my patient now.' But, yeah, it's out of control. Insurance is out of control. I have no other words," Potter said.

Potter toldNewsweek, "The trend is disturbing. There is no room in healthcare where the pressure of insurance isn't felt by both patients and doctors. Not even the operating room. When will we say enough is enough and push back? I'd say now. This is already out of hand."

UnitedHealthcare was in the news last month after CEO Brian Thompson was hunted down and killed in Midtown Manhattan. Police recovered bullets at the scene that read, "delay, deny, defend," a rallying cry aimed at the insurance industry's practices.

Arrested and charged with murder was 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, who "expressed disdain for corporate America, in particular the health care industry."

Backlash against the industry was immediate, with many people "celebrating" the death of the CEO in online posts.