How Cigna Saves Millions by Having Its Doctors Reject Claims Without Reading Them

Although the attractiveness of these products to consumers is clear, direct-to-consumer products bypass the typical filters and safeguards of health-care systems. The risk is that low value, or even harmful, products will inundate the commercial health-care market. There are cautionary instances of high-profile direct-to-consumer companies, such as... See more

"Humans have a well-documented tendency, called automation bias, to accept an algorithm’s recommendations even if it contradicts their own expertise, he said. This bias could cause doctors to be less critical while reviewing A.I.-generated drafts, potentially allowing dangerous errors to reach patients."

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Using the Rock Health Digital Database,1 which profiles digital health companies based in the USA that received more than $2 million in publicly disclosed funding from 2011 to 2019, we found that 252 (21%) of 1214 digital health companies pursued a direct-to-consumer strategy.

• The US is the only OECD country without some form of universal health coverage, resulting in the US spending twice as much (per capita) than other OECD countries.


• Despite this higher spending, most data shows health outcomes in the U.S. to be worse than other OECD countries, even after adjusting for nuances like above-average obesity.


• A 2020 study by

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