If you like drama, we highly recommend tuning into UnitedHealth Group’s current happenings.
The health insurer likely hoped to have a plot-twist-free 2025 after weathering the massive Change Healthcare data breach and executive Brian Thompson’s assassination in 2024.
But an abysmal Q1 foreshadowed another tumultuous year.
Execs blamed the poor performance largely on higher-than-expected utilization. Then, a month after Q1’s earnings call, CEO Andrew Witty abruptly resigned for “personal reasons” and former CEO Stephen Hemsley returned to the helm.
Now, the healthcare industry is watching to see if the insurance giant will right itself.
“When a company of this scale staggers, it can disrupt care delivery, delay access to medications, and erode trust across the healthcare ecosystem,” Forrester Research’s Principal Analyst Arielle Trzcinski told Healthcare Brew.
Comeback kid. Hemsley—United’s CEO from 2006 to 2017—laid out his strategy at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on June 2.
He vowed to update pricing to catch up with elevated utilization, revamp how the company predicts future utilization, and review practices like risk management coding. This comes as the company is reportedly under criminal investigation for Medicare fraud, the Wall Street Journal reported in May.
“It has never been more evident to me that we need to reinvigorate the performance culture and disciplines that have long been the hallmark of this company to more effectively navigate through this dynamic period,” Hemsley said.
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Hemsley’s remarks were “notably candid and direct,” Trzcinski said—a good sign.
“US health insurers earn trust through competence, reliability, and accountability. [United’s] CEO is leading with accountability, and the company must now deliver on competence and demonstrate reliability,” she said.
Uncertain future. That being said, there’s a lot of uncertainty around how the insurer will fare going forward.
Not only are stock prices still low and investigations unfinished, but before the meeting, Stat reported that United had accidentally sent talking points to one of its reporters—which, ya know, probably doesn’t help the whole rebuilding-confidence-in-the-company thing.
The 18 pages of talking points include responses to questions about the CEO transition, executive compensation and scrutiny of United’s business model.
The document was reportedly labeled “privileged and confidential,” though United posted a public version of the document online after Stat let the company know the outlet intended to publish it.
There are also reports UnitedHealth is weighing bids for the sale of its Latin American operations, according to Reuters, which added that the company has been trying to exit Latin America since 2022.