A Texas surgeon revealed that she was sent a threatening letter from UnitedHealthcare after she spoke out on how the insurance provider allegedly called her while she was performing surgery.
Dr. Elisabeth Potter took to social media to share a letter she received from UnitedHealthcare, which was sent to her after she posted a video of herself online, criticizing the provider for calling her in the middle of surgery.
"I recently shared a video after I was asked to call United Healthcare from the operating room to answer administrative questions about the patient who was having surgery to treat breast cancer," Potter stated on Instagram on Sunday. "Despite my efforts, they denied her stay."
"I spoke out because this has simply gone too far," she continued. "My words were true and the situation was absurd."
Potter posted a video of herself on January 7 in which she criticized the US healthcare and health insurance industries after having to scrub out of the operating room mid-surgery in order to take a call from her patient's healthcare provider, UnitedHealthcare.
"I had to scrub out mid-surgery to call United, only to find that the person on the line didn't even have access to the patient's full medical information, despite the procedure already being pre-approved," Potter said in the caption of her video.
"It's beyond frustrating and, frankly, unacceptable. Patients and providers deserve better than this. We should be focused on care, not bureaucracy," she continued.
"If it had been at a critical moment during the surgery, I wouldn't have," Potter later told Fox News Digital. "But I made that judgment call and I stand by that — I think it was the right thing to do for the patient."
In response to her video, a Virginia law firm representing UnitedHealthcare sent Potter a letter in which the company demanded that she retract her previous statements and set the record straight with media outlets that reported on the story.
"In short, UnitedHealthcare never asked or expected you to step out of surgery to make a phone call and any suggestion that we did so is false," the company wrote in their letter.
"You must promptly correct the record by removing your videos, posting a public apology to UnitedHealthcare, and condemning the threats of violence aimed at our client resulting from your post. We also expect you to contact Newsweek, and any other media outlet who has reported on this issue and inform them that your claims were false, that you unequivocally retract your claims, and that you are requesting them to remove all stories about your claims," the letter continued.
The letter proceeded to threaten legal action against Potter if she did not comply with UnitedHealthcare's demands.
However, Potter was unfazed by the correspondence she received, resolving to continue speaking out against healthcare injustices.
"The gaslighting and harassment in the letter which United sent me has not worked to do anything other than strengthen my resolve," she stated. "I will continue to speak honestly, clearly and plainly about the state of healthcare in the United States of America."
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