As alleged CEO killer heads to court, UnitedHealth spars with surgeon, investor in coverage dispute

Dr. Elisabeth Potter posted an online video in early January out of frustration with UnitedHealthcare, describing how she scrubbed out of surgery that day to phone the insurer, worrying she had to make sure coverage wasn’t denied for a patient in the midst of an operation.

“It’s 2025, and insurance just keeps getting worse,” the Texas surgeon says in the video.

The insurer responded publicly that Potter was spreading dangerous misinformation just to score social media points.

The dispute over what happened that day illustrates the complexity and passion that can surround any coverage determination. It also reflects the broader turmoil over denials that continues to surround parent company UnitedHealth Group and the health insurance industry, more than two months after the slaying of company executive Brian Thompson.

Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering Thompson on Dec. 4 as he walked along a New York City sidewalk on his way to an investor conference, is scheduled to appear in court Friday for a pretrial conference.

Potter’s video, which started going viral shortly after its initial posting, has drawn online comments ranging from “More Luigis Please!!!” and “FREE LUIGI!!!!!!!” to “Soooo UHC didn’t learn from Luigi the first time?”

UnitedHealth Group has pushed back loudly and publicly against Potter’s accusations.

“Intentionally spreading misinformation over social media is irresponsible and dangerous, and any physician who jeopardizes patient safety for social media clout undermines the trust in both the physician-patient relationship and health care in general,” the company said this month.

Potter insists everything in her video is true. She argues that she’s advocated on behalf of breast cancer patients for decades and started doing so on social media in 2022.

“I post honestly about things that matter to me and my patients, and that often touches on insurance,” Potter told the Minnesota Star Tribune on Thursday.

“The murder of Mr. Thompson is a tragedy. ... I would ask that anyone who follows me or anyone else act with kindness, compassion and good judgment when they are dealing with each other.”

After Thompson, 50, of Maple Grove was killed, Mangione became a folk hero to some who saw the alleged shooter as exacting a measure of revenge against a health care system that enriches corporations and their executives while denying care for patients.

Crowdfunding as of Feb. 10 had raised more than $290,000 for Mangione’s legal defense, according to a spokesman for his lead defense attorney.

A group called the December 4th Legal Committee is raising money to make sure Mangione is adequately defended against charges, without passing judgment on his guilt or innocence, said Sam Beard, a spokesman for the group.

“The American private health insurance industry has ruined countless lives by denying people access to basic care and burying families in medical debt,” Beard said in a statement. “It’s no surprise that Luigi’s alleged actions are understood and supported by tens of millions of hardworking Americans.”

Mangione did not have health coverage from UnitedHealthcare, the legacy business at UnitedHealth Group. But the company’s status as the nation’s largest carrier puts it in the middle of any discussion about whether the system needs reforms, such as increased transparency or regulation about coverage denials.

Health care providers and health insurers have argued for decades over coverage determinations, but Thompson’s killing has added a new dimension to these debates by showcasing public anger over the status quo.

In January, as Potter’s post started commanding a wider audience, UnitedHealthcare’s defamation law firm sent her a six-page letter demanding an apology and telling her to remove “knowingly false, misleading and defamatory social media posts regarding UnitedHealthcare.”

Potter, however, did not back down. Instead, she posted to social media in early February the full text of the law firm’s letter, which caught the attention of activist investor Bill Ackman.

Ackman is a hedge fund manager who has challenged management over the years at large companies, including Minneapolis-based Target. He has championed Potter’s cause on social media and on Tuesday said UnitedHealth Group “owed Dr. Potter a public apology for defaming her.”

On Wednesday, the Eden Prairie-based company issued a statement insisting the patient’s care had been paid for and that the company’s medical director “never asked the doctor to leave surgery.”

“Our inquiry to the hospital was due to an erroneous order of a separate inpatient stay request,” the company said. “The hospital has acknowledged this error.”

Potter specializes in reconstructive surgery for women with breast cancer. During one of these cases in January, Potter said, she was interrupted by a nurse supervisor about a call from UnitedHealthcare.

It was highly unusual, she said, to be interrupted like that in the operating room. There was another surgeon on the case, Potter said, so she could safely leave to return the call.

“I’ve seen it before, when people get stuck with bills that are $80,000 or $100,000,” she told Fox News Digital in January. “And so I said to my partners, ‘I’m going to make this call real quick.’”

UnitedHealthcare did not require her to leave the operating room, Potter told Fox News Digital. But in a video she posted to Instagram, Potter says she understood the insurer needed to talk with her “right now.”

Text posted with the video states: “I was interrupted by a call from UnitedHealthcare — while the patient was already asleep on the operating table. They demanded information about her diagnosis and inpatient stay justification. I had to scrub out midsurgery to call United, only to find that the person on the line didn’t even have access to the patient’s full medical information."

She added in the text: “It’s beyond frustrating and, frankly, unacceptable. Patients and providers deserve better than this. We should be focused on care, not bureaucracy. I just have no other words at this point.”

After Potter posted the law firm’s demand for an apology, Ackman posted and then deleted a social media message saying he would not be surprised if UnitedHealth Group’s profitability were overstated because of denial of medically necessary care.

He said he took the message down after being contacted by UnitedHealth Group, which also complained to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Health insurance has long been subject to significant regulatory oversight and earnings caps,” the company said in a Feb. 5 statement. “Any claims that health insurers, which typically have low- to mid-single-digit margins, can somehow over-earn are grossly uninformed about the structure and strong regulatory oversight of the sector.”

UnitedHealth Group also said the health care provider incorrectly submitted a bill for an inpatient admission, even though the patient had been preapproved for an outpatient procedure with an overnight “observation” stay — a distinct classification where insurers and the government typically pay less for a patient’s stay in a facility.

“There are no insurance-related circumstances that would ever require a physician to step out of surgery ... and we would never ask or expect a physician to interrupt patient care to return a call,” the company said.

Ackman said Tuesday on social media that he believed Potter but stressed that there’s no justification for violence or threats against UnitedHealth Group leaders.

While UnitedHealth Group said its representative did not insist on speaking with Potter, Ackman said, “facts on the ground suggest otherwise,” including that the company called the operating room front desk rather than the doctor’s office or billing department.

And, he said, Potter disputes UnitedHealth Group’s charge that she made an error in ordering an inpatient stay, insisting the judgment was driven by the patient’s lung infection on the morning of surgery.

”If I were on the UNH board, I would launch an immediate investigation of the company’s approach to paying claims ... and the approach it takes in attacking the critics who challenge it," Ackman wrote.