What You Ought to Know:
– UnitedHealth Group revealed it’s dealing with a Justice Division (DOJ) legal and civil investigation into its Medicare billing practices, including to a sequence of current setbacks for the nation’s largest and strongest personal insurer.
– The corporate additionally introduced it has launched a third-party assessment of its enterprise insurance policies and efficiency metrics, anticipated to be accomplished by the top of the third quarter. The announcement comes after a tumultuous interval for UnitedHealthcare, the corporate’s largest income driver by means of its Medicare and retirement section, which raked in $139B in gross sales final yr.
DOJ Investigation
In a securities submitting, UnitedHealth Group confirmed it’s complying with formal legal and civil requests from the DOJ and proactively reached out to the division after stories of the probes surfaced. The corporate expressed “full confidence in its practices and is dedicated to working cooperatively with the Division all through this course of”. UnitedHealth Group shares dropped round 2% on the day of the announcement.
In response to earlier stories, UnitedHealth Group maintained its stance on the integrity of its Medicare Benefit program. The corporate acknowledged that unbiased audits by the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers (CMS) “verify” that its practices are “among the many most correct within the trade”.
UnitedHealth additionally pointed to a particular grasp’s advice in March in favor of the corporate in a years-long authorized battle with the DOJ. This case stemmed from a whistleblower allegation that the corporate illegally withheld no less than $2Bthrough the Medicare Benefit program, however the particular grasp assigned by a decide discovered the DOJ lacked proof.
