The UnitedHealth Group revealed Thursday that it is cooperating with a federal investigation over alleged Medicare fraud allegations. This comes after a long string of setbacks to the multinational corporation, including the murder of the CEO of one of its subsidiaries.
In May, the Wall Street Journal reported that UnitedHealth was reportedly under investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for possible Medicare fraud since. According to the WSJ, the DOJ alleged that UnitedHealth was encouraging its practitioners and insurers to add extra payments onto patients’ records in order to receive more payments from the federal government through Medicare Advantage programs.
UnitedHealth originally denied those claims, saying that “We have not been notified by the Department of Justice of the supposed criminal investigation reported,” and adding that the WSJ’s reporting was “deeply irresponsible.”
According to a new press release, UnitedHealth acknowledged being the subject of a federal investigation over a month after the WSJ’s report.
“The Company has now begun complying with formal criminal and civil requests from the Department,” the statement reads. “The Company has full confidence in its practices and is committed to working cooperatively with the Department throughout this process.”
This investigation into UnitedHealth’s practices is one in a long line of blows to confidence in the company. Most notably, in December 2024, Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth’s insurance arm, was gunned down in New York City.
Luigi Mangione, the man arrested for Thompson’s murder, allegedly committed the murder for symbolic reasons — in order to affect change within the healthcare industry in America. A manifesto collected from his person revealed as much in June.
UnitedHealth is also facing a massive antitrust suit from around the time of Thompson’s murder over their planned merger with Amedisys, a hospice and home elderly care service. The DOJ is suing UnitedHealth in order to stop the merger between the two multi-billion dollar corporations.
In addition, UnitedHealth is currently under a different antitrust investigation for its coordination with Optum Health, the company’s employer of medical practitioners. The WSJ reported on an email from UnitedHealth to a former employee in March stating that “the government has asked us some questions regarding Optum’s coding practices.”
Since a massive data breach that affected a subsidiary of UnitedHealth early last year, on top of the murder of Thompson and these antitrust lawsuits, the company’s stock price has fallen significantly. UnitedHealth’s stock price has fallen by more than 3% following the recent news of cooperation with the federal government over Medicare fraud allegations.