Analysis: A new threat to UnitedHealth's Medicare Advantage profits

For the behemoth UnitedHealth, a new threat to Medicare profits

By Tara Bannow and Casey Ross

Patrick Sison/AP

UnitedHealth Group reaped billions from the federal Medicare program by diagnosing patients with serious chronic illnesses, and then delivering no follow-up care.

The result? $3.7 billion in dubious payments last year alone, according to a federal report.

The revelations contradict a core claim of UnitedHealth's public messaging about its principal Medicare business strategy — that it's focused on identifying conditions early and keeping patients healthy — and could usher in further investigations and new restrictions that clamp down on its primary ways of making money.

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