From its CFO being added to a class-action lawsuit, to acquiring a Medicare health insurer in Houston, here are six headlines about UnitedHealth Group since Aug. 1:
1. UnitedHealth Group CFO John Rex was added Aug. 24 to a class-action lawsuit alleging he put the company's business relationship with Wells Fargo ahead of information the company's 401(k) plan was filled with low-performing target-date funds.
2. Digital employee productivity monitoring is gaining in popularity across every industry, including at UnitedHealth Group and Allina Health. But the practice is coming under fire because of how monitoring can be directly tied to compensation and job security, The New York Times reported Aug. 14.
3. UnitedHealth disclosed in a regulatory filing it has acquired KS Plan Administrators, a Medicare health insurer in Houston, the Star Tribune reported Aug. 16. KS Plan Administrators is affiliated with Kelsey-Seybold, a Houston-based medical group that a stock analyst said in July had been acquired by UnitedHealth Group for about $2 billion.
4. UnitedHealth Group had the biggest net income in the first half of 2022 among the nation's largest payers.
5. UnitedHealth Group's Optum arm said Aug. 1 it is working with French pharmaceutical company Sanofi to offer a 30-day supply of insulin products for $35 to uninsured diabetics.
6. The trial over a Justice Department challenge to the $13 billion proposed merger of Optum and Change Healthcare began Aug. 1 in Washington, D.C. Former UnitedHealth CEO David Wichmann and current CEO Andrew Witty are among those who testified.