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Doctor Blasts Insurance Company For Calling During Surgery: “do You Understand She’s Asleep?”
Health insurance is a very sensitive subject in the United States. Recently, the topic has been in the public eye more than probably ever before. The core problem is that many Americans feel that they pay a lot of money for insurance, but in some cases, their insurers go to extreme lengths to try to deny them coverage when they need healthcare.
The internet is applauding a Texas-based doctor who publicly called out UnitedHealthcare. In a massively viral video on TikTok, Dr. Elisabeth Potter claimed that she had to stop mid-surgery to take a call, during which she was told to urgently contact the company. An insurance employee then asked for information about a patient’s diagnosis while she was on the operating table. The employee was trying to determine whether the person’s inpatient stay should be justified. Read on for the full story.
Bored Panda has reached out to Dr. Potter via email for further comment, and we’ll update the article as soon as we hear back from her.
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A doctor made a huge splash on the internet after calling out an insurance company which interrupted her in the middle of surgery
Image credits: Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Dr. Potter, who works in Austin, Texas, was appalled by the entire situation and posted a video about it on TikTok
“It’s 2025, and insurance just keeps getting worse.”
Image credits: drelisabethpotter
“I just did two bilateral DIEPs and two bilateral tissue expanders for patients, and I’ve never had this happen before. During the second DIEP, I got a phone call into the operating room saying that United Healthcare wanted me to call them about one of the patients who was having surgery today, who was actually asleep having surgery. They said I had to call right now. So I scrubbed out of my case, and I called United Healthcare, and the gentleman said he needed some information about her.”
Image credits: drelisabethpotter
“He wants to know her diagnosis and whether her impatience day should be justified. And I was like, do you understand that she’s asleep right now and she has breast cancer? And the gentleman said, actually, I don’t. That’s a different department that would know that information.”
Image credits: drelisabethpotter
“And I was like, well, she does need to stay overnight tonight. You have all the information with you, because I got approval for this surgery, and I need to go back and be with my patient now.
It’s out of control. Insurance is out of control. I have no other words.”
You can watch the full viral video right here
@drelisabethpotterIt’s 2025, and navigating insurance has somehow gotten even more out of control… I just performed two bilateral DIEP flap surgeries and two bilateral tissue expander surgeries. During one of the DIEP cases, I was interrupted by a call from United Healthcare—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 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. 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♬ original sound – Dr. Elisabeth Potter
Image credits: Chad Davis (not the actual photo)
The company that the doctor called out is one of the most powerful businesses in the entire world
Dr. Potter has gone viral on TikTok, social media, and in the media after calling out UnitedHealthcare for interrupting an important operation. Not only did the company allegedly dispute the patient’s care while she was in surgery, but the insurance representative also did not have access to the patient’s medical history.
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated is a US multinational for-profit company that specializes in health insurance and health care services. It sells insurance products under UnitedHealthcare. Meanwhile, it also sells healthcare services under the Optum brand. It is the world’s largest healthcare company in terms of revenue.
The group had a revenue of $371.6 billion in 2023, an operating income of $32.36 billion, a net income of $23.14 billion, and assets worth $273.7 billion.
At the time of writing, UnitedHealth Group ranked 8th on the 2024 Fortune Global 500 list, with a market capitalization of $460.3 billion as of December 20, 2024.
Dr. Potter is an Austin, Texas-based board-certified plastic surgeon and DIEP (deep inferior epigastric perforator) specialist. She has a large following of 28.9k people on TikTok and 31.3k on Instagram.
Her video on TikTok, where she explained what happened with the insurance company and her patient, currently has over 4.6 million views and counting. Meanwhile, the doctor also shared two follow-up videos on the topic, in which she gave a couple of updates.
UnitedHealthcare told the Daily Mail that Dr. Potter’s claims are supposedly unconfirmed. “There are no insurance related circumstances that would require a physician to step out of surgery and it would create potential safety risks if they were to do so,” a representative of the company told the outlet.
“We did not ask nor would ever expect a physician to interrupt patient care to answer a call, and we will be following up with the provider and hospital to understand why these unorthodox actions were taken.”
Meanwhile, UnitedHealthcare shared the same response with the team at Newsweek, more or less word for word.
“The trend is disturbing. There is no room in healthcare where the pressure of insurance isn’t felt by both patients and doctors. Not even the operating room. When will we say enough is enough and push back? I’d say now. This is already out of hand,” Dr. Potter told Newsweek via email.
Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio / Pexels (not the actual photo)
There appears to be a huge lack of trust between patients and health insurance companies. There’s a lot of tension
Finance expert Michael Ryan explained to Newsweek that insurance companies can sometimes employ so-called attrition strategies, which are “a calculated approach where administrative hurdles serve as profit protection mechanisms.”
Ryan states from his experience that “if even 30% of patients give up on pursuing care due to delays and denials, that translates to hundreds of millions in preserved capital for the insurer.”
Meanwhile, financial literacy instructor Alex Beene, from the Univesity of Tennessee, told Newsweek that whether or not that call was necessary, these situations are why public relations are so strained between the public and health insurance providers.
“Individuals pay a good portion of their earnings over their lives for coverage for their families and themselves, only to discover when they actually need to utilize that insurance, they are denied the ability to do so,” Beene said.
“No one expected businesses like UnitedHealthcare to completely change overnight, but there does need to be a better understanding of the policies and procedures that go into accepting or denying a claim. If all that’s known is that the claim is denied and transparency continues to be elusive, it’s going to bring more resentment to an industry that can’t afford much more.”
Meanwhile, founder and CEO of Ansel Health, Veer Gidwaney, told Newsweek that health insurance companies “often take actions such as this to manage costs.” However, Gidwaney stressed that expenses should never come at the expense of patient safety.
What do you think about the entire situation, dear Pandas? What would you have done if you were in Dr. Potter’s shoes? Have you ever had any issues with your health insurance or major problems with your health? What do you think US companies could do to fundamentally reform their approach to business and coverage? Let us know in the comments.
