UnitedHealth Group shares plunge after report of Medicare fraud inquiry
5-6 minutes5/15/2025
Shares in the UnitedHealth Group tumbled after it was reported that the largest health insurer in the US is under investigation over possible criminal Medicare fraud.
The US Department of Justice has been investigating the health insurance giant since last summer, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.
UnitedHealth’s shares dropped 16.5% during early trading in New York on Thursday, deepening a stark market rout. Its stock value has halved since the turn of the year.
Earlier this week, the vast healthcare firm announced its CEO, Andrew Witty, was stepping down for personal reasons as it suspended its full-year financial outlook due to higher-than-expected medical costs.
While Medicare isa US government-run health insurance program for older and disabled people, Medicare Advantage is a program under which private health insurers contract with the Medicare program to provide health benefits.
UnitedHealth said: “We have not been notified by the Department of Justice of the supposed criminal investigation reported, without official attribution, in the Wall Street Journal today.
“We stand by the integrity of our Medicare Advantage program,” the firm added.
The justice department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this year, the Journal reported that a civil fraud investigation had been launched into UnitedHealth’s Medicare practices, while the US senator Chuck Grassley launched an inquiry into the company’s billing methods, demanding detailed compliance records.
For decades, the company has flourished by leveraging its dominance in insurance and growth in the Medicare market, the US government program that covers medical costs for elderly people.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed reporting
Can you help us hit our support goal?
Why you can rely on the Guardian not to bow to Trump – or anyone
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask whether you could support the Guardian’s journalism as we face the unprecedented challenges of covering this administration.
As Trump himself observed: “The first term, everybody was fighting me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend.”
He’s not entirely wrong. Already, several large corporate-owned news organizations have settled multimillion-dollar lawsuits with the president in order to protect their business interests. Meanwhile, billionaires have intervened editorially in the news outlets they own to limit potentially unfavorable coverage of the president.
The Guardian is different: we have no interest in being Donald Trump’s – or any politician’s – friend. Our allegiance as independent journalists is not to those in power but to the public. Whatever happens in the coming months and years, you can rely on the Guardian never to bow down to power, nor back down from truth.
How are we able to stand firm in the face of intimidation and threats? As journalists say: follow the money. The Guardian has neither a self-interested billionaire owner nor profit-seeking corporate henchmen pressuring us to appease the rich and powerful. We are funded by our readers and owned by the Scott Trust – whose only financial obligation is to preserve our journalistic mission in perpetuity.
What’s more, in a time of rising, democracy-threatening misinformation, we make our fiercely independent journalism free to all, with no paywall – so that everyone in the US can have access to responsible, fact-based news.
With the administration already cracking down on free speech, banning reporters from the Oval Office, and the president and his allies pursuing lawsuits against news outlets whose stories they don’t like, it has never been more urgent, or more perilous, to pursue fair, accurate reporting. Can you support the Guardian today?
We value whatever you can spare, but a recurring contribution makes the most impact, enabling greater investment in our most crucial, fearless journalism. As our thanks to you, we can offer you some great benefits – including seeing far fewer fundraising messages like this. We’ve made it very quick to set up, so we hope you’ll consider it. Thank you.