Cigna tracks every minute that its staff doctors spend deciding whether to pay for health care. Dr. Debby Day said her bosses cared more about being fast than being right: “Deny, deny, deny. That’s how you hit your numbers,” Day said.
The doctors discussed in the article are reviewing cases that have already been denied by a nurse. They can deny a case instantly by copying and pasting the nurse’s justification for a denial. To approve a case, they have to write their rationale for overturning the original decision.
If you just need to be faster, why is it “deny, deny, deny” and not “approve, approve, approve?”
The implied subtext there would pretty clearly be that too many approvals would also cost them their job.
The doctors discussed in the article are reviewing cases that have already been denied by a nurse. They can deny a case instantly by copying and pasting the nurse’s justification for a denial. To approve a case, they have to write their rationale for overturning the original decision.