From the purchase of a home-health firm to the release of its first-quarter 2022 earnings report, here are five recent updates involving UnitedHealth.
1. UnitedHealth Group reported $80.1 billion in first-quarter revenue, representing 14.2 percent growth year over year, according to its earnings report released April 14. Cash flows from operations in the first quarter were $5.3 billion, with $3.9 billion returned to shareholders.
2. A UnitedHealth subsidiary was ordered to pay $200 million to the family of a now-deceased Las Vegas man who was denied coverage of a lung cancer therapy treatment. The subsidiary, Sierra Health and Life Insurance, was sued in 2019 by the family of William Eskew, who purchased a Sierra Health plan in 2016 after being diagnosed with lung cancer. United HealthCare plans to appeal, a spokesperson for the insurer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on April 12.
3. UnitedHealth's Optum unit and Change Healthcare said April 5 that they are extending their merger agreement through the end of 2022 and setting a $650 million reversal fee if the deal is not successful. The Justice Department filed a lawsuit in February to challenge the merger, saying it would harm competition in commercial markets, raise costs on millions of people and give UnitedHealth too much power in electronic data transactions. Change Healthcare and Optum are expected to explain the benefits of the merger during a two-week trial starting Aug. 1.
4. UnitedHealth Group is investing $100 million to build affordable housing, starting in Georgia, North Carolina and Oregon, with additional locations to be named in the coming months, the healthcare company said April 7. More than 1,000 homes are expected to be built through the new investment, the company said.
5. Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, agreed to buy Lafayette, La.-based home-health firm LHC. The companies said in a March 29 news release that the agreement will strengthen their ability to provide value-based care, especially in the comfort of a patient's home. LHC employs about 30,000 people, including front-line care providers and administrative and support personnel, according to the release.