From a Senate report finding the company used “aggressive strategies” to secure higher-paying Medicare Advantage diagnoses to Optum beginning a review of Minnesota Medicaid claims, here are 10 updates on UnitedHealth Group and its subsidiaries that Becker’s has reported since Dec. 29:
1. UnitedHealthcare launched a six-month pilot program aimed at cutting Medicare Advantage payment processing times in half for independent rural hospitals in four states.
2. UnitedHealth Group commissioned two independent studies from actuarial firm Milliman highlighting Medicare Advantage savings for both the federal government and beneficiaries.
3. UnitedHealth Group leveraged “aggressive strategies” to get higher-paying Medicare Advantage diagnoses, according to a Jan. 12 Senate report.
4. House Republicans have asked the leaders of some of the nation’s largest health insurers — including UnitedHealth Group — to testify before Congress at the end of January as scrutiny intensifies over rising healthcare costs and industry profits.
5. Senators Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., are expanding their probe into UnitedHealth Group’s nursing home programs after the company provided what they said is an insufficient response to their initial inquiry.
6. Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health and Thomas Jefferson University filed a federal lawsuit alleging that three insulin manufacturers and the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers — including OptumRx — conspired to inflate insulin prices.
7. UnitedHealthcare will begin requiring a full written interpretation and report to reimburse the professional component of certain radiology services billed alongside evaluation and management visits, effective April 1.
8. Optum began reviewing Minnesota Medicaid claims as part of an enhanced prepayment audit, state officials said, as the state grapples with a widening fraud crisis in its public assistance programs.
9. Mark Cuban, co-founder of Cost Plus Drugs Co., and Optum CEO Patrick Conway, MD, sparred over drug prices, pharmacy benefit managers and a range of other healthcare issues during a Dec. 16 conversation in Washington, D.C. hosted by Johns Hopkins University.
10. Mail-order pharmacies owned by UnitedHealth and Humana dispensed Medicare prescription refills earlier and more frequently than industry peers, according to an analysis of federal prescription data published Dec. 26 by The Wall Street Journal.
