Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Sunday, December 8th.

Today on Forbes, United Healthcare denies more claims than other insurers, angering patients

and health systems.

The bullet casings from the ammunition that killed United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson

reportedly had three words written on them, quote,

deny, defend, and depose. These words allude to the strategy that some attorneys and critics

have used to describe the tactics used by health insurance companies to deny making payment on claims.

And the most recent available data suggests that United

Healthcare, or UHC, is perhaps the country's worst offender.

When it comes to denying claims, multiple reports suggest that UHC, which is the country's

largest health insurer and serves some 50 million people, is an industry leader, with a rate nearly double

the industry average. A recent Senate report slammed the company for denying nursing care to patients

recovering from falls and strokes on its Medicare Advantage plans, and it currently faces a class

action lawsuit for its use of AI algorithms to automatically refuse payment.

The insurance giants' tactics have frustrated patients and health care providers alike.

A major protest at the company's subsidiary Optum's headquarters in Minnesota in July

attracted roughly 50 demonstrators, 11 of whom were arrested.

Disputes with hospital systems over UHC's claim denials

have led to some deciding not to accept its insurance at all.

Insurance Insights firm Value Penguin told Forbes that gauging an exact number of claim

denials is tricky, as there's no central repository of this data.

But according to one of the firm's reports on insurance claim denial rates,

...