(Reuters) – The United Actions fell on Wednesday in preheating exchanges after a Guardian report that the company made secret payments to nursing homes to reduce hospital transfers added to the problems of the health care conglomerate.
The alleged action, which is part of a series of cost reduction tactics, has saved millions of people, but sometimes risked the health of residents, the Guardian reported, citing an investigation.
United said in response that “the United States Ministry of Justice has investigated these allegations, interviewed with witnesses and obtained thousands of documents that have demonstrated the factual inaccuracies important in allegations”.
The company also declared in a statement sent by email that the DOJ refused to continue the case after examining all the evidence during its multi -year investigation.
The actions of the company took a blow after the Wall Street Journal recently reported that the US Ministry of Justice had started a criminal investigation into the company for the potential Medicare fraud, which followed the abrupt departure of the CEO Andrew Witty and the withdrawal of its forecasts in 2025 last week.
On Wednesday, Unitedhealth’s shares fell by more than 8% before undergoing losses and decreased by 3% to $ 311.59.
In addition, HSBC has degraded the stock to “reduce” to “keep” and reduce the lens to a street of $ 270.
“The new CEO has the opportunity to start a clean slate (ER), but we see the risk for the growth of profits as well as the overhang of policies,” HSBC analysts wrote in a note.
The company appointed the former CEO Stephen Hemsley to the first job, counting on its experience to put the health care giant back on and lead it through the current crisis.
Brokerage has said that higher medical costs, pressure on medication pricing and its pharmacy, OptUMRX and a potential MEDICAIDI -funding unit can upset the company’s recovery course.
United has faced several major challenges in the past 12 months, including a cyber attack in its technological unit which has affected some 190 million people, a report of a survey on its medicare billing practices and an unexpected increase in medical costs that has harmed its results.
“The news is only aggravating for Unitedhealth,” Sahak Manuelian, general manager of Global Equity Trading, told Wedbush.
“This is a kind of difficult situation for investors to come and have a kind of confidence in the work of money, so we will have to wait and see how it is played unfortunately,” said Manuelian.
(Report by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; additional report from Twesha Dikshit to Bengaluru; edition by Anil d’Anva)