From naming a former FDA commissioner to its board of directors to striking a deal to sell its last South American business, here are 10 updates on UnitedHealth Group and its subsidiaries that Becker’s has reported since Nov. 13:
1. UnitedHealth Group is selling its last South American business, Banmedica, to Brazilian private equity firm Patria Investments for $1 billion.
2. Luigi Mangione, the 27-year-old accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last December, appeared in New York state court on Dec. 1 for the start of pretrial hearings that could shape which evidence jurors see at his upcoming trial.
3. UnitedHealthcare filed a lawsuit against the director of the Idaho Department of Insurance, arguing that the state’s recent efforts to regulate Medicare Advantage plan marketing and broker commissions are in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
4. UnitedHealth purchased a four-story, 79,000 square foot medical office building in Henderson, Nev. The $46.1 million building houses Optum Nevada’s Cactus Healthcare Center.
5. Optum Rx will eliminate reauthorization requirements for 40 additional medications beginning Jan. 1 as part of the company’s effort to streamline access to prescriptions.
6. Former U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, was named to UnitedHealth Group’s board of directors.
7. A judge cleared the way for Nebraska to continue its lawsuit against Change Healthcare and its parent company, UnitedHealth Group, over the 2024 ransomware attack that compromised sensitive data for nearly half the state’s residents.
8. Optum Health, the care delivery arm of UnitedHealth, named Krista Nelson as its new CEO.
9. UnitedHealth is working to position itself as a frontrunner in the wider healthcare industry’s ongoing technological transformation, with AI at the heart of its strategy to innovate, improve operational efficiency, and enhance the experience of its customers.
10. As part of the ongoing enterprise-wide recalibration effort to improve financial performance, UnitedHealth leadership shared that it would be moving its finance business at Optum under the umbrella of Optum Insight, the company’s data and analytics arm.
