{"id":109501,"date":"2025-02-28T17:47:34","date_gmt":"2025-03-01T01:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/28\/unitedhealth-hit-with-2-new-federal-probes-in-1-week\/"},"modified":"2025-02-28T17:47:34","modified_gmt":"2025-03-01T01:47:34","slug":"unitedhealth-hit-with-2-new-federal-probes-in-1-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/28\/unitedhealth-hit-with-2-new-federal-probes-in-1-week\/","title":{"rendered":"UnitedHealth Hit With 2 New Federal Probes In 1 Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

The post UnitedHealth Hit With 2 New Federal Probes In 1 Week<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The federal government has been cracking down on healthcare giant UnitedHealth Group<\/a> over the past year, and it\u2019s showing no signs of slowing down.<\/p>\n

For instance, the Department of Justice began<\/a> an antitrust probe into the company last February, and then in March, HHS launched<\/a> an investigation into the catastrophic cyberattack<\/a> suffered by UnitedHealth subsidiary Change Healthcare<\/a>. The DOJ also filed<\/a> a lawsuit to block the UnitedHealth Group\u2019s $3.3 billion acquisition of Amedisys in November.<\/p>\n

This week, the company faced two new investigations from federal lawmakers \u2014 the first being a senator\u2019s probe<\/a> into its Medicare Advantage billing practices, and the second being a congressman\u2019s investigation<\/a> into a decline in care quality at UnitedHealth-owned clinics in New York.<\/p>\n

The first new probe came on Monday, when Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) initiated<\/a> an inquiry into UnitedHealth Group\u2019s Medicare Advantage billing. He was prompted by reporting from The Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a>, which suggested the company may have manipulated billing rules for profit. The report stated the DOJ is investigating the company for inappropriately inflating its members\u2019 diagnosis codes to increase reimbursement payments.<\/p>\n

UnitedHealth accused The Wall Street Journal <\/em>of spreading misinformation and denied<\/a> any fraudulent activity. The company also denied that the DOJ launched an investigation into its Medicare Advantage billing practices.<\/p>\n

Grassley has requested detailed records from UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty, including compliance documents and training manuals, to assess the company\u2019s billing practices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The next probe came on Wednesday, when Representative Pat Ryan (D-New York) launched a community inquiry into care quality at clinics owned by UnitedHealth subsidiary Optum. The probe, which targets Optum-owned clinics in New York\u2019s Hudson Valley, comes as a result of constituent complaints about inaccessibility, inaccurate billing, and a reduction in care quality.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy office has been hearing from folks across the Hudson Valley about a decline in care, especially at CareMount Medical and Crystal Run Healthcare, following their purchase by Optum. I\u2019m launching this community inquiry to hear from as many folks as possible to directly inform my ongoing oversight,\u201d Ryan said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The congressman is seeking more feedback from his constituents who receive care or work at Optum facilities in the Hudson Valley.<\/p>\n

Optum is looking forward to meeting with policymakers to discuss ways to achieve the \u201ccommon goal of providing the highest quality patient care,\u201d a company spokesperson wrote in an email to MedCity News<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince these practices chose to join Optum, we have introduced a number of new measures to continue to enhance our services, including dedicated teams responsible for scheduling and supporting medication refills and clinical questions, as well as technology investments to improve our patients\u2019 experiences. We, too, have felt the impact of the national healthcare provider shortage and are continuing to invest in solutions to attract, support and retain our dedicated care providers,\u201d the spokesperson wrote.<\/p>\n

Photo: MikeyLPT, Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n

Note: This article was updated February 28 to include commentary from Optum.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The post UnitedHealth Hit With 2 New Federal Probes In 1 Week appeared first on Above the Law. The federal government has been cracking down on healthcare giant UnitedHealth Group over the past year, and it\u2019s showing no signs of slowing down. For instance, the Department of Justice began an antitrust probe into the company […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":109502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/GettyImages-617888262-OWxaAd.jpeg?fit=723%2C483&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}