UnitedHealth Shares Drop After Report Reveals Secret Bonus Payments To Nursing Homes For Cutting Hospital Transfers
(www.zerohedge.com)https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/unitedhealth-shares-drop-after-report-reveals-secret-bonus-payments-nursing-homes-cuttingUnitedHealth Group shares dropped as much as 7.5% in premarket trading Wednesday in New York, following a Guardian investigation that revealed the health insurer shelled out "Premium Dividend" and "Shared Savings" bonuses to nursing homes that reduced hospital transfers for sick residents
Here are some of the key findings from the report:
UnitedHealth stationed in-house medical teams at nearly 2,000 nursing homes, incentivizing them to lower hospitalizations through financial rewards like "Premium Dividend" and "Shared Savings" payments tied to hospitalization rates.
Internal records show UnitedHealth monitored nursing homes using "admits per thousand (APK)" metrics and set "budgets" for hospitalizations. Facilities with high APKs were denied bonuses.
In multiple documented cases, patients were denied urgent hospital care, leading to serious harm, including permanent brain damage. Whistleblowers say these incidents were hidden or minimized.
Nurse practitioners were pressured to push "Do Not Resuscitate" (DNR) orders, even when patients had previously expressed the desire for life-saving treatments.
UnitedHealth also incentivized increased enrollment in its Institutional Special Needs Plans by offering large payments to nursing homes, which in some cases leaked confidential patient data to help sales teams directly solicit families—often bypassing consent rules.
these ppl are murderers
