UnitedHealth Group

[29] In July 2009, UnitedHealth Group agreed to acquire Health Net's Northeast licensed subsidiaries for up to $570 million in payments spread out over two years.

[37] In October 2012, UnitedHealth Group and Amil Participações, one of the biggest Brazilian health insurance companies, completed the first phase of their merger.

[57] In November 2019, Andrew Witty was named president of UnitedHealth Group, in addition to his role as chief executive of the company's Optum division.

[62] In February 2022, UnitedHealth announced the acquisition of Change Healthcare, the largest health payments platform in the US, which the US Justice Department tried to block on antitrust grounds; the sale went through by September.

[63] 18 months later, in February 2024, the subsidiary was brought completely down by the 2024 Change Healthcare ransomware attack, and the Justice Department announced that it was opening a new antitrust and Medicare overcharging probe.

Andrew Witty went before the Senate stating that there needed to be a strong digital security system in place along with an adequate backup plan.

[66] The shooting prompted many social media users to criticize UnitedHealthcare, the American health insurance system, and Thompson personally.

[100] In 2006, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began investigating the conduct of UnitedHealth Group's management and directors, for backdating of stock options.

Investigations were also started by the Internal Revenue Service and prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, who subpoenaed documents from the company.

The investigations came to light after a series of probing stories in the Wall Street Journal in May 2006, discussing the apparent backdating of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of stock options by UHC management.

Major shareholders have filed lawsuits accusing former New Jersey governor Thomas Kean and UHC's other directors of failing in their fiduciary duty.

[112] In February 2008, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced an industry-wide investigation into a scheme by health insurers to defraud consumers by manipulating reasonable and customary rates.

The announcement included a statement that Cuomo intended "to file suit against Ingenix, Inc., its parent UnitedHealth Group, and three additional subsidiaries."

Cuomo said this inappropriately allowed health insurance companies to deny a portion of provider claims, thereby pushing costs down to members.

[113] On January 13, 2009, Ingenix announced an agreement with the New York State attorney settling the probe into the independence of the health pricing database.

Under the settlement, UnitedHealth Group and Ingenix would pay $50 million to finance a new, non-profit entity that would develop a new healthcare pricing database.

To fund FAIR Health, the Attorney General's office secured nearly $100 million from insurers such as Aetna, UnitedHealth Group, and Anthem Inc.[117] A whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2011 charged UnitedHealth Group's data analytics division with assisting in defrauding Medicare by boosting risk adjustment scores from Medicare Advantage companies.

The suit alleged that UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Ingenix (now OptumInsight) "defrauded the United States of hundreds of millions – and likely billions – of dollars."

[124] In 2019, UnitedHealthcare paid a $1 million penalty to settle Pennsylvania regulators' allegations that the company violated state and federal laws when paying medical claims, particularly for patients seeking treatment for autism and substance use disorders.

The regulators also compelled the company to pay restitution for wrongly denied or delayed claims and to spend $800,000 on an outreach campaign to notify consumers of their mental health and substance use disorder benefits.

While the Lewin Group does not advocate for or against any legislation, both Democratic and Republican politicians frequently cite the firm's studies to argue for and against various U.S. healthcare reform proposals.

[129] Former U.S. Representative Eric Cantor, the former House Republican Whip, has referred to the organization as "the nonpartisan Lewin Group" in arguing against government-funded health insurance proposals.

The report showed that legislative proposals would achieve nearly universal coverage and "estimated that a public plan could offer small businesses insurance that is at least 9 percent cheaper than current small-business policies.

Indeed, Lewin Group Vice President John Sheils told The Washington Post that "sometimes studies come out that don't show exactly what the client wants to see.

In November 2021, the jury unanimously found United guilty of "oppression, fraud, and malice" in its conduct and awarded TeamHealth $2.65 million in compensatory damages.

TeamHealth plans to pursue similar legal action against United and other insurers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Florida, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Executives at UnitedHealth Group told workers to mine old medical records for more illnesses, to identify diagnoses of serious diseases that might have never existed, inflating bills paid by the federal government's Medicare Advantage program.

[138][139] In July 2024, the Wall Street Journal concluded that UnitedHealth was the worst offender among private insurers who made dubious diagnoses in their clients in order to trigger large payments from the government's Medicare Advantage program.

[141] UHF pledged $100 million over ten years to fund scholarships and workforce development programs focused on increasing ethnic and racial diversity within the health care industry.

According to UHCCF, the foundation raises money for medical grants by selling gift items such as backpacks, books, cards, and games, some of which are created by children.

Former LHI (now Optum Serve) buildings in La Crosse
Police outside the corporate headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota , on December 8, 2024
Logo for UnitedHealthcare
Quarterly earnings
Net income (left)
Revenue (right)