Investing.com -- UnitedHealth Group shares fell more than 6% premarket on Wednesday following a Guardian investigation that claimed the healthcare giant secretly paid nursing homes bonuses to reduce hospital transfers and helped it gain Medicare enrollees.
According to the Guardian report, the payments were part of a cost-cutting strategy embedded in UnitedHealth’s nursing home initiative, which deployed company medical teams to facilities across the country. These teams reportedly worked to limit hospitalizations.
In some cases, the Guardian reported that “the company’s insertion of itself into nursing home emergency protocols helped delay or avert transfers for patients who could have benefited from immediate hospital care.”
One man reportedly suffered permanent brain damage after a delayed transfer for a suspected stroke.
The report cites internal documents, court filings, and whistleblower complaints alleging that UnitedHealth’s financial incentives led to delayed care and inappropriate pressure on staff to reduce hospital visits.
“No one is truly investigating when a patient suffers harm,” a current UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH) nurse practitioner told the Guardian.
The Guardian said UnitedHealth denied the allegations, calling the claim that its staff blocked hospital transfers “verifiably false.”
A former nurse practitioner, Maxwell Ollivant, told the Guardian he filed a congressional declaration urging the federal government to hold the company accountable.