UnitedHealth Group has laid off dozens of distant staff in healthcare expertise and providers marketing from its Optum unit, who got two weeks discover in November, sources advised Health Payer Specialist.
Quick Firm has reached out to UnitedHealth for affirmation.
These staff had been primarily based in “a number of states on the East coast and within the Midwest,” in accordance with that report, and are amongst UnitedHealth’s roughly 400,000 staff throughout the U.S. (It’s the guardian firm of UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest healthcare insurer.)
The healthcare large is simply the newest firm in a string of industries to announce layoffs, which have hit nearly each sector of the American economic system in 2025. The layoffs come amid fierce criticism of the corporate’s healthcare and insurance coverage practices.
UnitedHealth Group and UnitedHealthcare have acquired backlash and widespread criticism over client allegations of expensive insurance coverage, overbilling, denial of necessary care, and affected person privateness violations, amongst different complaints. (UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s homicide in December 2024 was met with little sympathy by some People, as Quick Firm beforehand reported.)
On Friday, the corporate released the primary spherical of outcomes of an impartial audit of its enterprise, saying it was dedicated “to setting a brand new commonplace of transparency for the well being care market,” and vowing to make enhancements via “23 motion plans”—with 65% to be accomplished by the tip of 2025, and all 100% by the tip of the primary quarter of subsequent yr in March 2026.
These embody: enhancing coverage governance and upkeep, strengthening processes for ongoing monitoring and monitoring progress of corrective actions, enhancing danger, and optimizing producer low cost processes.
“We hope that you simply see these assessments as a dedication to setting a brand new commonplace of transparency for the well being care market, as we consider that you simply and each one who engages with our well being system deserves to grasp how we go about our work,” CEO Steve Hemsley said in the statement.
