UnitedHealth confronted with Medicare to analyze the DOJ in opposition to Medicare

Unitedhealth Group On Thursday it reveals that the Ministry of Justice is examined via its Medicare -Billing practices, which leads to a series of setbacks for a company that has the largest and most powerful private insurer in the country.

In a securities registration, the company stated that it complied with formal criminals and civilian inquiries from the Doj and that it turned to the department after reports on the probes appeared. Unitedhealth also announced that it started a review of his business policy and performance metrics from third -party providers.

The company announced CNBC that it expected to complete this review towards the end of the third quarter.

In the submission, Unitedhealth said that it has “full confidence in its practices and is committed to cooperative with the department in this process.”

The UnitedHealth Group's shares decreased by 2% on Thursday. The company's managers will probably ask themselves questions about the probe during his profit in the second quarter on July 29.

Jared Holz, Mazoho Securities Health Care strategist, said on Thursday in an email to customers that the announcement was “not shocking”, but stated that the company had previously refused to investigate doj. He said Unitedhealth's decision to admit the probes and work with the department, “everyone sounds logical when it progresses with a new CEO”.

The company announced the abrupt departure of the former CEO Andrew Witty in May.

The announcement of Unitedhealth on Thursday, after the Wall Street Journal in May, comes that the Ministry of Justice conducts a criminal investigation by the health giant about possible medical fraud. In response to the fact that the company is “due to the integrity of our Medicare Advantage program”.

In July, the journal also reported that the Doj asked several doctors about Unitedhealth practices and whether it felt forced to raise claims for certain conditions that strengthened the payments from the Medicare Advantage program to the company.

This was the second time this year that the insurer's Medicare Advantage business was examined. The journal also reported in February that the DOJ carried out a civil law investigation as to whether the company had inflated diagnoses to trigger additional payments for its Medicare Advantage plans.

On Thursday, Unitedhealth said that independent audits of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “confirm” that the company's practices are “one of the most precise in the industry”.

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In March, Unitedhealth also referred to a recommendation of a special master in favor of the company in a year -long legal dispute with the Doj, which started with a whistleblower, which claimed that the company had illegally held back at least 2 billion US dollars via the Medicare Advantage program. The special master assigned by a judge told the case that the Doj had no evidence.

The Medicare and Retirement segment of Unitedhealthcare, which includes the Medicare Advantage Business, is the largest sales driver of the Unitedhealth Group, which has achieved sales of $ 139 billion last year.

The update in the probe takes place after a turbulent last year for Unitedhealthcare. Shares of the parent company of Unitedhealthcare, Unitedhealth Groupare announced more than 42% for the year after it had exposed its forecast from 2025 in the midst of medical costs, Witty's surprise outcome was announced and dealt with the reported probes in his Medicare Advantage business.

The company of the company in 2024 was not easier, characterized by a historical cyber attack and the electricity of public blowback after the murder of the CEO of Unitedhealthcare, Brian Thompson.

– Bertha Coombs from CNBC contributed to this report.

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