Health insurers use a whole arsenal of tools to deny care, increase profit

Last summer, the Trump administration, physician advocates, public health academics and activists requested a voluntary commitment from commercial health insurance industry CEOs to streamline the prior authorization process. Commercial health insurance companies like UnitedHealthcare, Cigna, Aetna, CVS Health, Humana and others signed onto a six-part voluntary pledge, understanding they would be required to reach a number of benchmarks to reduce prior authorization, which is when a commercial health insurance company does not allow the medical …