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Actions of United Group Plunged more than 18% Thursday following a report according to which the Ministry of Justice conducts a criminal investigation into the health care giant on a possible fraud in Medicare.
The DoJ focuses on the business of Medicare’s business of the company, but the exact nature of potential criminal allegations is not clear, reported the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday evening, quoting people familiar with the problem.
In a statement, Unitedhealth Group said that the Ministry of Justice had not informed him of the reported investigation and described the report of the newspaper “deeply irresponsible”.
The company has also declared “we maintain the integrity of our Medicare Advantage program”.
It marks the second time this year that the Medicare Advantage company of the insurer has been the subject of a federal examination. The newspaper reported in February that the Doj conducts a civil investigation into If the company has inflated diagnostics to trigger additional payments to its Medicare Advantage plans.
The reported investigation also follows the surprise of the CEO of the United group, Andrew Witty, who will be replaced by the former long -standing director of the company, Stephen Hemsley.
The shares of Unitedhealth Group are down 49% this year following a set of setbacks for the company.
Unitedhealth Group has lost more than $ 300 billion in market capitalization of $ 600 billion in just one month, Jared Holz, Mizuho Health-Care Equity on Thursday. He said there was a certain risk that the company be withdrawn from the industrial average of Dow Jones “at some point, unless there are greater evidence of coherence”.
Unitedhealth Group also had a tumultuous 2024, struggling with a historic cyber attack, medical expenses greater than the torrent of public return after the murder of the CEO of Unitedhealthcare, Brian Thompson.
