Markets
markets

UnitedHealth says it’s working with feds on Medicare probe

UnitedHealth Group is responding to requests from the Department of Justice regarding its Medicare Advantage business, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing Thursday morning.

Before this, the company had proactively reached out to the government after The Wall Street Journal reported that it was being probed. UnitedHealth is now “complying with formal criminal and civil requests” from the DOJ.

“The Company is committed to maintaining the integrity of its business practices and serving as reliable stewards of American tax dollars,” it said in the filing.

The company’s insurance arm, UnitedHealthcare, 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 the program to trigger larger payments from the government.

UnitedHealth fell 4% in premarket trading. It’s down more than 40% for the year.

The confirmation of the investigation adds to UnitedHealth’s growing list of issues.

The head of its insurance arm, Brian Thompson, was killed in Manhattan in December in a high-profile shooting. The company ousted its CEO in May amid reports of increased scrutiny from the government. And the probes confirmed on Thursday are in addition to last year’s antitrust investigation into the company.

More Markets

See all Markets
markets

Broadcom soars on Google’s plans for up to $185 billion in capex this year

Google’s capex guidance is Broadcom’s earnings guidance.

The hyperscaler and search giant said its 2026 capex budget would be between $175 billion and $185 billion, 55% higher than Wall Street had anticipated.

Accordingly, shares of the custom chip specialist are soaring in after-hours trading.

Broadcom has enjoyed a halo effect from Google’s capex plans and the success of its Gemini 3 model (trained on TPUs the two companies codesigned) over the past year.

But the custom chip designer had tumbled after its most recent earnings report, with some analysts attributing the decline to the dearth of new customer announcements. But who needs new customers when your current ones are opening their wallets this much?!?

Accordingly, shares of the custom chip specialist are soaring in after-hours trading.

Broadcom has enjoyed a halo effect from Google’s capex plans and the success of its Gemini 3 model (trained on TPUs the two companies codesigned) over the past year.

But the custom chip designer had tumbled after its most recent earnings report, with some analysts attributing the decline to the dearth of new customer announcements. But who needs new customers when your current ones are opening their wallets this much?!?

(J. Edward Moreno/Sherwood News)

Novo and Lilly agree prices are falling — and disagree on what comes next

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are cutting prices to reach more patients — with sharply different expectations about what that means for sales.

markets

Ozempic is no longer the most searched for GLP-1 in the US

Ozempic, the popular diabetes drug made by Novo Nordisk, used to be shorthand for an entire class of diabetes and weight-loss medications. Not anymore.

According to Google Trends data, as of January, more people in the US are searching for Eli Lilly’s weight-loss shot, Zepbound, than Ozempic. At the same time, interest in the word “Ozempic” now sits roughly on par with searches for “peptides,” a catchall term for a booming, loosely regulated category of experimental supplements.

The numbers hint at a cultural shift: Ozempic is no longer the only word people reach for when they think about weight-loss drugs. The market — and the vocabulary around it — is fragmenting.

This shift also reflected in sales numbers. For several quarters now, Lillys diabetes and weight-loss drugs have outsold Novos, and that gap is expected to widen this year.

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.