How I Hacked Google Alerts to Track Healthcare's Worst Behavior
I get asked all the time: "How do you find this stuff?"
The lawsuits. The settlements. The denials that killed someone. The whistleblowers. The nine figure fines that amount to a rounding error for companies that made billions denying care.
People assume I have sources. Insider contacts. A research team.
I don't. I have Google Alerts and 30 years of rage.
WHY I BUILT THIS
I survived brain cancer at 21. The tumor almost killed me. The bills almost killed my family. That was 1995. I've spent the three decades since watching the same system do the same thing to millions of other people.
The difference now is that I'm paying attention professionally. I run Out of Patients, the number one independent healthcare podcast. I wrote We the Patients (Wiley, May 2026). I've made it my job to translate the daily parade of healthcare malfeasance into something people can understand and act on.
But I'm not a journalist. I'm not breaking stories. I'm recognizing patterns.
The stories are already out there. Exposed by reporters, filed in court documents, announced in press releases that companies hope no one reads. My job is to watch. Connect the dots. And tell you what it means.
Google Alerts is how I watch.
THE RECIPE
Go to google.com/alerts. Set each of these as a separate alert. Choose "daily digest" so your inbox doesn't explode. Then wait.
Within a week, you'll see what I see. Within a month, you'll understand why I'm angry. Within a year, you'll wonder how you ever trusted the system.
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The Insurers (by name, because they've earned it)
Aetna insurance denial
Anthem insurance denial
Cigna insurance denial
UnitedHealthcare denial
UnitedHealthcare prior authorization
OptumRx denial
The Cancer Delays (because this is where people die)
Prior authorization cancer
Insurance denied chemotherapy
Insurance delay chemotherapy
Insurance delayed cancer treatmen
Cancer drug access denied
Specialty pharmacy delay cancer
The Accountability Trail (such as it is)
Health insurance whistleblower
Health insurer lawsuit
Health insurance settlement
Department of Justice health insurer
CMS enforcement insurance
Date insurance commissioner fine
The Movement
We The Patients
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That's 19 alerts. Daily digest. Every morning, my inbox fills with evidence that the system is performing exactly as designed.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
You'll learn that the fines never match the damage. A $118 million settlement sounds like accountability until you realize the company made $300 billion last year. That's not punishment. That's a licensing fee for fraud.
You'll learn that the same names keep appearing. UnitedHealthcare. Cigna. Aetna. The algorithms change. The denials don't.
You'll learn that whistleblowers exist, and they're usually ignored until a lawsuit forces someone to pay attention.
You'll learn that patients die waiting for prior authorization, and the people who designed the delay face no consequences.
You'll learn that the system isn't broken. Broken implies it once worked. This system is doing exactly what it was built to do: extract money and delay care until the problem resolves itself. Sometimes the problem is a tumor. Sometimes the problem is a patient who gives up. Sometimes the problem is a patient who dies.
WHY I'M SHARING THIS
Because I can't be the only one watching.
The healthcare industry counts on complexity. They count on exhaustion. They count on patients being too sick, too scared, or too overwhelmed to pay attention to the patterns.
If more people set up these alerts, more people see the patterns. More people get angry. More people start asking why we tolerate a system that treats survival as a billing opportunity.
I don't need you to trust me. I need you to see what I see.
Set up the alerts. Read what lands. Draw your own conclusions.
Then join the rest of us who refuse to stay quiet.
THE BOTTOM LINE
This isn't investigative journalism. It's pattern recognition. The stories are public. The court filings are public. The settlements are public. The only thing missing is someone willing to watch every day and say out loud what it all means.
That's what I do. Now you can do it too.
Welcome to 2026: The Year of the Patient where the sick shall inherit the ballot.
If you want to follow along as I translate the daily feed into something actionable, find me on LinkedIn or subscribe to Out of Patients wherever you get your podcasts.
The more of us watching, the harder we are to ignore.
