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UnitedHealthcare is mad about a video a doctor posted on Instagram and TikTok and it’s hired a defamation lawyer to get it removed. UHC also wants the doctor to publicly apologize for the video and contact “any other media outlet” that has reported on the video and tell them she lied. The doctor is holding her ground against the insurer, and accused the company of “gaslighting and harassment.”
On January 7, Dr. Elisabeth Potter, a plastic surgeon in Austin, TX, posted a video on social media that went viral. To hear Potter tell it, she was in the middle of surgery when someone from United Healthcare called her office on the phone and demanded to talk to her. “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,” she wrote under the video explaining the situation.
UHC was so upset about the video that it contacted Clare Locke, a Virginia-based defamation law firm to chase down the doc. Potter said the law firm sent her a letter, dated January 13, that she has posted on her Instagram page. UHC’s version of events is that Potter’s office had filed paperwork incorrectly and that it would never ask her to leave surgery to talk to them.
The first half of the six-page letter litigated the specifics of Potter’s account. The second half focused on the virality of the video and the mean comments underneath it. “On TikTok alone the first video generated more than 4.8 million views, approximately 762,000 likes, and approximately 20,000 comments,” the letter said. “Numerous comments, such as ‘In Luigi we trust,’ and ‘Need more Luigi,’ were posted in response to your false claims, attempting to justify the assassination of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson.”
The letter also noted that people called for violence against UHC execs and employees. “For instance, one TikTok user commented ‘We can keep taking out each CEO that steps up until they get it.’ Another user commented ‘guess someone else needs to be killed for them to get the point lol what in the world.’”
As to Potter’s claim about the phone call, the letter said it was on her not the insurer. “On the morning of the surgery, your office incorrectly ordered an inpatient hospital stay when you meant to order an outpatient observation stay,” the letter said. “Had you not made that error, UnitedHealthcare would not have reached out.”
So what does UHC want the doctor to do? “You must promptly correct the record by removing your videos, posting a public apology to UnitedHealthcare, and condemning threats of violence aimed at our client resulting from your posts,” the letter said. It also wants Potter to contact Newsweek and other outlets that reported the story to ask them to remove the stories entirely. Something that Potter would have no power to do, even if she wanted to.
Potter is holding her ground. In her Instagram post sharing the letter, she doubled down. “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. Despite my efforts, they denied her stay,” she said. “I had requested an overnight stay for medical reasons. This was not an error on my part.”
Potter said that the letter contained “gaslighting and harassment” and that it had “strengthened [her] resolve.”
People hate their health insurance companies in America. Anyone who has had to interact with them on any level understands the rage and frustration. In December, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down on the streets of Manhattan and his alleged killer Luigi Mangione has become a folk hero.
After the shooting, doctors and patients have shared their frustrations about the healthcare system in general and UnitedHealthcare specifically. Potter’s is just one of the most well-known. The comments under her videos are full of support from both patients and medical professionals.
