UnitedHealth drops after WSJ reports DOJ probe
UnitedHealth Group fell sharply Friday morning after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Justice is investigating its Medicare billing practices.
The civil fraud investigation (which is separate from an antitrust probe ongoing at the agency) is reportedly looking into whether the largest health insurer in the country cheated the system so it could get larger payments from the government.
Shares were down 10% in premarket trading.
UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealth’s insurance arm, offers Medicare Advantage, a program where those eligible for government healthcare can get it through a private company and the government reimburses most of the bill. But according to previous reporting from the Journal, which appears to have sparked the DOJ probe, the company often overdiagnoses patients on Medicare Advantage to trigger larger payments from the government.
Shares were down 10% in premarket trading.
UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealth’s insurance arm, offers Medicare Advantage, a program where those eligible for government healthcare can get it through a private company and the government reimburses most of the bill. But according to previous reporting from the Journal, which appears to have sparked the DOJ probe, the company often overdiagnoses patients on Medicare Advantage to trigger larger payments from the government.
