Posted on 05/14/2025 6:00:31 PM PDT by gas_dr
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) is under investigation by the Department of Justice for potential Medicare fraud.
The probe is centered around the insurer's Medicare Advantage business, The Wall Street Journal reported. UnitedHealth shares are down ~8% in after-hours trading Wednesday evening.
The healthcare-fraud unit at DoJ is spearheading the investigation. That division investigates transgressions such as kickbacks that lead to higher Medicare and Medicare payments, the newspaper noted.
The probe is the latest headache for the health insurance giant, which just had an unexpected CEO change on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, a group of shareholders sued the company alleging it hid the business impact from the backlash surrounding the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
(Excerpt) Read more at seekingalpha.com ...
I have the AARP/UHC Medicare advantage plan. Great plan. Hope it doesn't change
First Luigi Mangioni, then the stock cratering, then the CEO stepping down, now this.
A cynic would wonder if they’re all related.
The Medicare Advantage plan was at the heart of their scheme. They claimed their customers had all kinds of diseases they did not actually have, and collected huge additional payments from the government.
Same here. Never had an issue.
They’re ALL into medicare fraud. Medicare advantage is a lucrative rip off.
Hardly cynical. UHC now employs docs and NPs through optum. I believe i read in February that the coders (not docs) were found upcoding. In addition UHC denies 2x as many claims as the other majors. UHC is as a company scum. Plain and simple. I hope the are barred from medicare.
Now, it is time for the lawyers to make money off of the shareholder lawsuits.
“I have the AARP/UHC Medicare advantage plan. Great plan. Hope it doesn’t change”
Same here. I have been on UHC for many years without problems. We will see if anything develops with this.
Potential? Insurance companies scam. Double bill. My GF is a retired SGM. Army. Always juggling their BS.
“The Medicare Advantage plan was at the heart of their scheme. They claimed their customers had all kinds of diseases they did not actually have, and collected huge additional payments from the government.”
Sure, sure, whatever.
We’ll all patiently await the proof of your assertion.
In the meanwhile, I’ll take advantage of the BUYING OPPORTUNITY! :-)
The fraud and abuse investigation isn't new this week. I heard about it back in January.
I think this is a second investigation as well as it js now criminal.
I see Cigna sold off its Medicare business at the end of last year. Wonder if they were given a heads up?
Medicare Advantage is overbilling Medicare by 22%
...The body in question is called the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, or MedPac. It is an independent, authoritative body that advises Congress on Medicare. It was set up by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, back when people in Washington were actually doing their jobs.[Snip]
“We estimate that Medicare spends approximately 22 percent more for MA enrollees than it would spend if those beneficiaries were enrolled in FFS Medicare, a difference that translates into a projected $83 billion in 2024.”
In other words: The private insurers who now run more than half of all Medicare plans are overcharging the taxpayers by a staggering $83 billion a year. They are charging us taxpayers 22% more than it would cost us to provide the same health insurance to seniors directly, if we just cut out the private insurance companies as middlemen.
And that’s not because the people in Medicare Advantage are sicker and therefore should cost more anyway. MedPac says this 22% estimate is after accounting for “favorable selection” and “coding intensity” — technical Medicare terms that mean, in effect, who’s sicker.
It’s a rip-off, pure and simple. And that figure, $83 billion, is staggering.
To put it in context, that is nearly 10% of the entire Medicare budget.
I think you intended to respond to Post No. 5 — not my post No. 6.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.