UnitedHealth Group was found in a report released Wednesday by the Guardian to have placed its workers in nursing homes and then paid them bonuses to reduce hospital transfers. After the report was released, the stock fell around 5.78%, or $14 billion, as of Wednesday afternoon.
At least one patient now lives with permanent brain damage after delayed transportation at the hands of a UnitedHealth staffer, according to the report. However, UnitedHealth asserted the report is untrue and that the bonuses are to ensure the prevention of unnecessary hospitalizations.
The report also revealed the high usage of and profiting from Medicare Advantage by UnitedHealth. Medicare Advantage is used by over half of the Medicare-eligible population, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and 1-in-5 Medicare users has UnitedHealth as their insurance company, according to the company’s reports.
Medicare Advantage allot the given insurance company an amount of money with which it can insure those on their Medicare plans. The more the company is able to cut costs, the more the company gets to keep. The cost-cutting tactic of reducing ambulance transfers has saved the company millions of dollars, according to the report. The incentives promoted to the nursing home staff put in place by the company were “financial sweeteners that sounded more like they came from stockbrokers than medical professionals,” the Guardian said.
The report partnered with Whistleblower Aid, with which a former UnitedHealth employee filed a congressional declaration in May in favor of holding UnitedHealth accountable for its actions. The previous reports that the Department of Justice was investigating UnitedHealth for Medicare fraud brought criticism of the company, with its stock falling by 17% last Thursday. It asserted it was unaware of such an investigation.
The report mentions the alleged murder of Brian Thompson, former CEO of the UnitedHealth insurance division, by Luigi Mangione, whose trial date is to be set in December. Within about a month of Thompson’s death, UnitedHealth market value lost $63 billion, according to the Economic Times. The stock in total has dropped almost 40% since the start of the year.
