How corporate money secretly backs academic research
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| The Intercept | 10 sept. 2021 |
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When Yale University researchers published a study showing more than 1 in 5 people who go to the emergency room were getting hit with costly surprise billing charges, the media response was scathing and immediate.
Yale’s study put the blame squarely on hospitals and staffing companies, while downplaying the role of the insurance industry.
But reporting by The Intercept revealed that UnitedHealthcare, the largest private health insurer in the U.S., helped frame the study and spin it in the media, which obscured the way insurance companies have shifted these costs onto patients.
This story reveals not just how the insurance industry jacks up costs to consumers or how corporate money influences academic research. It’s also a story of media manipulation, with corporate interests counting on news outlets to take academic studies at face value.
The investigative journalism needed to reveal this kind of subtle manipulation takes time, staff, and money. And it’s what The Intercept was founded to do. But to remain independent, we refuse to accept corporate advertising on our website. Instead we rely on you, our readers.
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Americans’ medical debt totals a staggering $140 billion, and 1 in 5 people have had medical debt go to collections because they can’t pay. So when news broke about widespread surprise billing for ER visits, it was sure to grab attention.
The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post all covered the study in 2017 — but without mentioning UnitedHealthcare’s involvement. They didn’t include how health insurance companies have been dropping out-of-network coverage rates, forcing the costs onto patients.
The Intercept obtained internal emails between UnitedHealthcare executives revealing that, while providing data to the study, they worked behind the scenes to influence the paper’s framing. And we’re not going to stop digging into how corporations influence academic research or health care industry lobbying.
We revealed how the health insurance industry successfully lobbied for provisions to protect their profits in coronavirus relief legislation. We reported on how CEOs of these corporations were fighting universal health care. And we revealed how members of Congress were taking money hand over fist from the insurance industry just as they were about to make decisions on reforming the system.
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Thank you, The Intercept team
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