The US Division of Justice (DOJ) is finishing up a felony investigation into UnitedHealth Group for attainable Medicare fraud.
The Wall Road Journal (WSJ) first broke the story on Wednesday.
UnitedHealth stated it had not been notified by the DOJ concerning the “supposed felony investigation reported”, and the corporate stood by “the integrity of our Medicare Benefit program”.
The DOJ’s healthcare-fraud unit is overseeing the felony investigation, which focuses on the corporate’s Medicare Benefit enterprise practices, WSJ reported, citing folks aware of the matter.
Whereas the precise nature of the potential felony allegations towards UnitedHealth is unclear, it has been an lively probe since at the least final summer season, the newspaper stated.
A DOJ spokesperson declined to remark to the WSJ concerning the recent felony probe. The division didn’t instantly reply to requests for feedback from the Reuters information company.
Final week, UnitedHealth stated in a daily submitting that it had been “concerned or is at present concerned in varied governmental investigations, audits and opinions”, with out disclosing additional particulars.
The brand new investigation follows broader scrutiny into the Medicare Benefit programme, during which Medicare-approved plans from a non-public firm complement common Medicare for Individuals age 65 and older by overlaying extra providers that the government-only plans don’t, similar to dental and imaginative and prescient providers.
In February, the WSJ reported a civil fraud investigation into UnitedHealth’s Medicare practices. The corporate had then stated that it was unaware of any new probe.
In the identical month, US Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa launched an inquiry into UnitedHealth’s Medicare billing practices, requesting detailed data of the corporate’s compliance programme and different associated paperwork.
The DOJ earlier this month filed a lawsuit accusing three of the most important US well being insurers of paying a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} in kickbacks to brokers in alternate for steering sufferers into the insurers’ Medicare Benefit plans.
Practically half of the 65 million folks lined by Medicare, the US programme for folks aged 65 and older or with disabilities, are enrolled in Medicare Benefit plans run by personal insurers.
The insurers are paid a set fee for every affected person, however might be paid extra if sufferers have a number of well being circumstances. Commonplace Medicare protection is managed by the federal government.
Brewing turmoil
The well being insurer has been below strain for months. On Tuesday, UnitedHealth Group’s CEO, Andrew Witty, stepped down unexpectedly, and the corporate concurrently suspended its 2025 monetary forecast because of rising medical prices, triggering an 18 % drop in shares to a four-year low.
Stephen Hemsley, who led the corporate for greater than a decade till 2017, is taking again the reins following setbacks including the December murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of its insurance coverage unit, which catapulted UnitedHealth into the general public consciousness.
On Thursday, after the information of the probe broke, UnitedHealth Group shares plunged 18 % to hit a five-year low.
“The inventory is already within the doghouse with traders, and extra uncertainty will solely pile on,” James Harlow, senior vp at Novare Capital Administration, which owns shares in UnitedHealth, instructed the information company Reuters.
If losses maintain, UnitedHealth would be the worst-performing inventory on the S&P 500 index in two of the final three days.
The previous month’s selloff has worn out almost $300bn from UnitedHealth’s market capitalization, or greater than half of its worth since its shares hit a report excessive in November.
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