Judge Allows Part of Lawsuit Against UnitedHealth Group to Move Forward
A federal judge in Minnesota has allowed part of a securities lawsuit against UnitedHealth Group to move forward. The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) alleges that the company misled investors about $3.3 billion in transactions that added to its earnings in 2024.
The transactions were used to hide weakness in UnitedHealth's Medicare Advantage business, according to CalPERS. The judge ruled that the nation's largest public pension fund may pursue claims that the company made strategic omissions and misleading statements to investors about these deals.
However, most of the claims made by CalPERS were dismissed, including allegations related to upcoding and insider trading. Upcoding refers to recording diagnoses that are unsupported or exaggerated to increase payments from Medicare.