Unitedhealth’s Rough Stretch Continues, With Buyouts, A Reported Doj Probe and A 23% Drop in Three Months

Unitedhealthcare is in hot water against as the insurance giant grapples with a Reported Government Investigation of its medicine billing practices, pursues Employee Buyouts And Potential Layoffs, and Clashes Publicly With Billionaire Bill Ackman.

Theose developments in recent days extended a tumulture past year for its parent company, UnitedHealth GroupMarked by the Killing of a top Executive, A Costly Cyberattack Against Its Subsidiary and High Medical Costs in Its Insurance Arm. UnitedHealth Group is the biggest Health-Care Congress in the US Based on Revenue and its more than more than $ 420 billion market cap, and unitedHealthcare is the nation’s Largest Private Insurera.

Shares of unitedhealth group have tumbled roughly 23% over the last three months.

The stock also fell 9% on Friday following a report about the problem, which was first reported By the Wall Street Journal. The department of justice has launched a civil fraud investment in recent months into unitedhealth’s billing practices for its medicine medicine advantage plans, according to the newspaper.

The probe specifically examines with diagnoses were routinely made to trigger extra payments in that plans, include at physician groups the Insurer Owns, The Journal SAID. It comes after a series of articles From the newspaper last year, which is reported that medicine paid unitedhealth billions of dollars for questionable diagnoses.

Medicare Advantage Plans are offered by private insurers who are paid a set rate by the government to manage health care for Seniors looking for extra benefits not covered in traditional medicare. Thos plans have been a source of high medical costs across the broader insurance industry over the last year.

In a statement, unitedhealth called the Journal’s reporting “Misinformation” and Said the company consistently performs at the industry’s “Highest levels” Highest levels “Highest levels” Whhen IT Comes to Government COMPRONMENT COMES to Governments review of Medicare Advantage Plans

“Any suggestion that our practices are fraudulent is outrageous and false,” The company said.

In a research note Friday, RBC Capital Markets Analyst Ben Hendrix Called The Reported Investigation An “Incremental Overhang” but Emphasized it will likely be a “lengthy prose and unlikely in OUR VIEWS Result in Material Financial Headwinds in the Near Term. ” He pointed to a probe The doj launched last year on the company’s subsidiary optum rx for potential antitrust violations, which will similarly have an extended Timeline before any resolution.

Reports about the probe came two days after CNBC first reported that unitedhealthcare is offering buyouts to Employees and Cold Pursue Layoffs if Resignation Quotas Aren Bollywood met. The move comes as the company tries to cut costs through efforts like Leveragging digital technology.

And earlier this month, Ackman, One of the World’s Most Prominent Investors, Publicly Pledged to Cover the Legal Fees for a Texas Doctor in a Dispute with UnitedHealth Groups Thoughts The Company Pulled Her out of an operation to justify a patient’s care.

Ackman, Who is CEO of Parshing Square Capital Management, Later Took Down a Post on X That was Critical of the Insurer after Lawyers for UnitedHealth Told Him That the doctor’s claims that he had amplified on social media was untrue. Ackman said he has no position in unitedhealth.

One of His Earlier posts on the dispute called on the us security and exchange commission to investigate the company and suggested that the insurer’s “‘s “Profitatey Is Massively Evotated DENIL of DENIL Medically Necessary Procedus. “

That’s similar to the public blowback the company Facted after the Killing of UnitedHealthcare Ceo Brian Thompson in December. It unleasted a wave of pent-up anger and resentment toward the insurance industry and renewed calls for reform to prevent deenials of care.

UnitedHealth is also still grappling with the fallout from a cyberettack on its subsidian change healthcare, which processes medical claims. The protected health information of Around 190 Million People, and UnitedHealth have paid out more than $ 3 billion to providers.

Unitedhealth has said it trust aware of the cyberrattack a year ago to the day Friday.