United Healthcare's very ugly year continues
The hits just keep landing on America's largest and possibly most hated 'health' insurer. Here's a recap, with the newest headlines.
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Even before the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson last December, United Health wasn’t having a great year. In 2024, a claims processing subsidiary was hit by a ransomware attack that revealed the data of at least 100 million people and resulted in over $3.1 billion in recovery costs for UnitedHealth.
While United had rapid growth in 2024—particularly of their Optum product and PBM1 —their growth and acquisitions were drawing the attention of federal antitrust regulators, with the DOJ filing to block United’s proposed takeover of a home health and hospice company and lawmakers raising concerns about United Health’s dominant market share and potentially anti-competitive practices. The practices of the PBM, OptumRx, were increasingly entangled in opioid lawsuits. Some health providers stopped accepting United patients and we’d later find out that while United raised record revenue in 2024, profits fell.
The December 4 Thompson shooting unleashed volcanic public anger about the for-profit companies who dominate the “delay, deny, defend” decision-making processes in our health system. A deluge of ugly personal stories followed. More than a week of silence later, Thompson’s boss, Andrew Witty, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, finally went public with a remarkably oblivious opinion piece blaming the “system” for delays and denials.
With polls showing 7 out of 10 Americans felt United bore some blame for the murder, politicians pounced, and by January United was under fire from multiple corners. YouGov polling showed all aspects of the brand—quality, satisfaction, value—taking significant hits. United was discovered to have overcharged some cancer patients for drugs by almost 1000%. The numbers of those impacted by the 2024 ramsomware attack were found to be almost twice as many—190 million, more than half the US population—as previously announced.
Here’s a recap of events since:
In February, the NLRB had a big unionization win with Optum Care employees.
May 13: Andrew Witty steps down, effective immediately, for “personal reasons,” with United also withdrew its financial guidance for 2025.
May 15: DOJ announces United is under investigation for criminal Medicare fraud, plunging stock another 13%.
Here’s the newest since our May 19 update:
May 21: Lawsuit against UnitedHealth alleges misuse of forfeited 401(k) plan assets
May 21: The Guardian publishes a story about United secretly paying nursing homes to reduce hospital transfers, causing another stock drop.
May 22: United shares were down by about 40% this year and Investopedia updates caution on United.
May 23: Another large health plan is locked in a dispute with United.
May 27: Congress is buying up United stock—so you have to ask what do they know that we don’t.
May 29: United contracting problems continue, now with Brown University, Rhode Island’s Ivy League university.
June 4: United accidentally send confidential shareholder talking points to a reporter. (See more below.)
June 5: United sues The Guardian for their story on nursing home payoffs.
June 6: Substack’s Health Care Un-Covered puts context around the shareholder prep leak United “didn’t want you to see.” The zebra’s stripes have not changed.
Today, June 9:
Excerpts from the diary of the man charged in Thompson’s death, Luigi Mangione, reveal his thoughts and potential motives and knowledge the public would likely be with him.
Reuters reports United may exit Latin America to refocus on US business.
PBM: Pharmacy Benefit Managers manage drug benefits for a health insurance plans or other payers/businesses. They’re the mysterious middlemen you keep hearing about, where decisions are made about which medications will be covered—or not—by the insurance plan, and at what cost to the consumer. The three big ones control 80% of subscriptions and are all owned by health insurance companies. OptumRx is owned by UnitedHealth Group.