You get a phone call from your healthcare provider who wants you to sign up for a “wellness check.”
“What is that?” you ask. You are told that it’s where someone comes to your house or connects with you on a video conference to discuss your Medicare healthcare concerns.
This happened to me recently. I told the caller, a woman, that I didn’t see the point. I have a primary care physician whose job it is to deal with my medical issues. Then I went off on an emotional rant about the company while telling her that I wasn’t mad at her. I was angry at the state of American medicine and her company, United Healthcare Group.
UHCG, the nation’s largest medical insurer, has been in the news recently for a number of reasons: one being the assassination of their CEO, Brian Thompson, in December 2024.
The Wall Street Journal then revealed that UHCG was under investigation for possible welfare fraud. These announcements cut the value of the UHCG by 50% of its $288 billion valuation. The corporation is also facing a civil investigation of its “Medicare billing practices.” Criminal charges are in the works for overcharging Medicare Advantage for “lucrative diagnoses” to the tune of $9 billion or more (The Week, May 30, 2025).
According to the January/February 2025 edition of the AARP Bulletin, private equity firms and corporations such as CVS Health and Amazon have been purchasing hospitals and private practices. Now, just shy of 80% of all American physicians work for these corporations.
These corporations have required its physicians to meet for 15 minutes with each patient. The more patients seen, the greater the profits. But, due to regulations and recording practices, “For every hour seeing patients, the average doctor now spends two hours doing administrative tasks, according to the AMA”.
According to the laws of physics, “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” The reactions are numerous:
1) Doctors are getting out of medicine. Older physicians retire earlier due to the stress. By 2036, there will be an expected 86,000 physician shortfall. The U.S. population has risen 8.4% since 2021. Meanwhile, the Boomer generation over the age of 65 has increased by 34%. The older a person is, the more medical care is required.
2) Physicians are specializing to increase their income to pay the high costs of a medical degree, meaning there is a primary care physician (PCP) shortage. Physician wait times have increased as a result. Often, to see a specialist, long waits of months, and long drives are necessary.
3) Many PCPs have turned to forming unions to protect their rights against the medical corporations. According to MDLinx.com, 70,000 active physicians belonged to a union as of October 2022.
4) To deal with the increasing paperwork and stress, many physicians have cut their hours of direct patient contact.
5) Many physicians have chosen “concierge medicine” where single patients pay an upfront out-of-pocket fee of between $2,000 to $10,000 annually.
Concierge medicine allows physicians the power to remain independent of the large corporations, and the freedom to control their own time. Patients under this model can spend more than 15 minutes per visit. Trust and connections can be developed between the physician and the patient. Patients are more open about what troubles them when there is trust. The problem is that this program works for those who can afford the extra cost. This leaves the poor at a distinct disadvantage, especially if there are a lot of children.
When I confronted the UHCG caller about these issues, I told her I had come to the conclusion that wellness visits were a way for UHCG to see the house as a way to increase the seriousness of the patient’s condition in order to charge more. Or it provided the company the right to refuse specialist charges by using what they saw. She countered by explaining that since patient times with physicians are 15 minutes or less, wellness visits give patients a chance to share medical concerns not possible with their primary care physician.
She told me that video conferences would also protect patient privacy not found in a home visit. I countered that corporations require short visits to increase their profits. I also expressed doubt that any medical corporation cares more about their patients than they do the expansion of their bottom line. She countered that wellness visits are voluntary. Patients are also paid as an incentive to have these wellness visits.
We ended our conversation pleasantly. She was idealistic that these practices are changing due to the assassination of their CEO. I countered that changes will likely come in protecting the higher ups with body guards, not better treatments of patients.