Attorney Eric Columbus, an Obama-era official at the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, shared a post on BlueSky this week amplifying a tool developed by the nonprofit news source ProPublica designed to help insurance policy holders demand information on any claim that is denied by their insurance company.
Columbus shared a post by Daniel Martin, a tech guru, from last spring, when Martin drew attention to the tool, writing: “I don’t know who needs to know this, but Pro Publica has an online thing that will format a letter to your US health insurance company to demand the records behind a claim denial. (which the insurance is then legally required to provide in most cases).”
The tool assists in the composition of an inquiry about any denied insurance claims, correspondence that legally compels a response and explanation from the insurer.
Columbus’s decision to share Martin’s post — which has gone viral this week, being shared thousands of times — was triggered by the reaction to the broad daylight slaying of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, a targeted murder believed to have been driven by frustration with the insurance company Thompson ran.
[NOTE: No motive has been established by police, though the words “deny” and “defend” were found on shell casings, increasing speculation that discontent was the intent. The perpetrator remains at large.]
Whatever the real motive, the murder swiftly became not a story about dangerous New York City streets, but a story about the reviled, predatory practices of insurers who deny claims far too often according to insured (and aggrieved) parties across the nation. On social media, the murder drew more empathy with the killer’s purported gripes than sympathy for the victim.
Indeed across the internet millions of voices have met the sad news of what looks like a vigilante murder with a collective rage against the industry in which the victim worked, and prospered. The rage described an suffering customer base constantly defeated by a corrupt health insurance system that has, in their view, enriched the few at great cost — financially and healthwise — to the many.
Martin expressed surprise at the number of new social media followers he was swiftly acquiring this week, before realizing that his months-old post had achieved new relevance after the murder. Soon after the viral sharing started, he reported that it had been shared almost 4,000 times and counting.
[NOTE: According to KFF, “three federal agencies have overlapping jurisdiction for most federal regulation of private health plans: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), and the U.S. Treasury Department.”
NEW PHOTOS: The NYPD says these photos are of the suspect they are looking for in the shooting death of the UnitedHealthcare CEO. These are the first unmasked photos that have been released publicly. pic.twitter.com/GIqBvJUkpk
— Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) December 5, 2024
