Who is Elisabeth Potter? GoFundMe raises over $270,000 for viral plastic surgeon amid fight with insurance company
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Dr. Elisabeth Potter's GoFundMe has raised over $270K (Image via YouTube/Doctor Mike)Amidst her feud with UnitedHealthcare, Dr. Elisabeth Potter recently created a GoFundMe page seeking financial help for her surgery center.
The fundraiser from the surgeon has received much attention from the community and has raised over $270,000, with a goal of $500K. Dr. Potter, who claims to be facing “retaliation” from the insurance company, talked about her ongoing battle.
She also mentioned receiving a “threatening legal letter” after her Instagram and TikTok posts in January 2025.
For those unaware, Dr. Elisabeth Potter is a board-certified plastic surgeon and DIEP flap specialist. She runs Dr. Potter's MedSpa in Austin, Texas.
According to her profile on St. David’s HealthCare, Dr. Elisabeth offers a “variety of breast reconstruction, cosmetic surgery and non-surgical cosmetic procedures.”
Per her LinkedIn profile, the surgeon earned her bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology from Princeton University. She is also an alumnus of Emory University School of Medicine, from which she obtained her MD degree.
Dr. Elisabeth Potter is well-known for her criticism of UnitedHealthcare and the insurance industry, which started her feud with the company earlier this year.
Dr. Elisabeth Potter’s battle with UnitedHealthcare began in January 2025
The fight between the insurance company and the Austin-based surgeon seemingly started in January 2025, when the latter shared a clip on Instagram.
Dr. Elisabeth Potter claimed that she was interrupted mid-surgery when a UnitedHealthcare representative called her requesting details of a patient.
She recounted the incident in her Instagram Reel and started by sharing her thoughts,
“It’s 2025 and Insurance just keeps getting worse.”
She mentioned having performed surgeries and being interrupted by a phone call,
“I have never had this before, but during the second DIEP I got a phone call into the operating room saying that United Healthcare wanted me to call them about one of the patients who was having surgery today.”
Dr. Elisabeth Potter shared that the patient was already asleep on the operating table when the representative called her and added,
“I scrubbed out of my case and I called United Healthcare and the gentleman said he ‘need some information about her’ [the patient], ‘wanna know her diagnosis’ and ‘whether her in-patience stay should be justified. And I was like, ‘Do you understand that she’s asleep right now and she has breast cancer?'”
She continued,
“The gentleman said, ‘Actually, I don’t. That's a different department that would know that information. And I was like, ‘Well, she does need to stay overnight tonight and you have all the information with you, because I got approval for this surgery, and I need to go back and be with my patient.’”
She concluded the video by asserting that “insurance is out of control.” In the caption of the post, she retold the incident and described the situation as “beyond frustrating and, frankly, unacceptable.”
Dr. Elisabeth Potter stated that “patients and providers deserve better than this” and claimed that they should be focused on care rather than bureaucracy.
UnitedHealthcare denied the doctor’s claims and branded them as false and defamatory.
According to Dr. Elisabeth Potter, the insurance company asked her to delete her posts from TikTok and Instagram while publicly apologizing for her remarks.
The surgeon shared a screenshot of the legal response in February 2025, which she apparently received in January.
In her Instagram post, Dr. Potter reaffirmed her stance and stated that her “words were true and the situation was absurd.”
On her GoFundMe page, she alleged that UnitedHealthcare hasn’t allowed her “surgery center to be in network,” while also stopping communication with her consultants.
She wrote:
“By refusing to allow my surgery center to be in network, they damage my ability to run a profitable practice and pay back the money I borrowed and earn back what I have invested.”
Dr. Elisabeth Potter revealed that she started the fundraiser to pay off some of her debt to keep her surgery center running.
TOPICS: Elisabeth Potter, GoFundMe, Human Interest, UnitedHealthcare