UnitedHealthcare quietly gobbles up smaller Peoples Health; UHC has long history of industry-high denial rates for care

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UnitedHealthcare quietly gobbles up smaller Peoples Health; UHC has long history of industry-high denial rates for care

August 26, 2026 by tomaswell

Item: Peoples Health is “TRANSITIONING” to UnitedHealthcare (UHC), the results of an acquisition which actually took effect on Jan. 1, 2024.

The merger—or purchase–leaves UnitedHealthcare the largest health insurance company in the U.S. and second-largest Medicare Advantage provider in the state, was done quietly and without fanfare.

But the takeover is a potential ominous development for Peoples Health’s 63,000 members in Louisiana. Despite a pledge that “nothing will change about Peoples Health,” UnitedHealthcare’s history says differently.

But the way medical procedures are approved is changing, as one recent telephone call revealed.

UnitedHealth Group denied 16.2 percent of all standard authorization requests in 2025, about 4.8 percent higher than the industry average.

Among Medicare Advantage plans, the average denial rate is about 17.4 percent so far this year. That’s versus a national Medicare Advantage denial rate of 8.9 percent. Fully 10 percent of urgent (expedited) requests are rejected by UnitedHealthcare. On appeals, about 34.4 percent are overturned.

A U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations REPORT in October 2024 indicated that the nation’s insurers, UnitedHealthcare included, have been using AI-POWERED TOOLS to deny some claims from Medicare Advantage plans holders. UnitedHealthcare’s AI model has a 90 PERCENT ERROR RATE, according to a lawsuit filed against the company. The lawsuit claims that the high error rate is not a bug in the system, but a feature of the UHC program.

A Peoples Health policy holder was recently contacted by telephone by a UnitedHealthcare representative who said referrals for treatment by most specialists must come from primary care physicians, effective Jan. 1.

Heretofore, Peoples Health has generally accepted claims from specialists without the necessity of primary care physician referrals. The exceptions are ophthalmologists and dentists.

Moreover, the primary care physician will be required to make such referrals through United HealthCare’s provider portal every six months.

In a classic repudiation of the “if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it” dictate, that will not only require more paperwork for the primary care provider, but it will also result in critical time delays for some procedures which will initially be denied, necessitating the appeal process.

And oh, don’t be surprised, too, if your premiums are increased in the near future.