Senators seek UnitedHealth records on push to curb nursing home hospitalizations

Source: The Guardian

Thu 7 Aug 2025 12.33 EDT
Last modified on Thu 7 Aug 2025 12.34 EDT


US lawmakers are asking UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest healthcare conglomerate, to disclose internal documents about its efforts to reduce hospital transfers for nursing home residents and the bonuses it has given to nursing homes which help it to do so.

In a 6 August letter, the Democratic senators Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren asked UnitedHealth’s CEO, Stephen Hemsley, to hand over a trove of company records about a partnership program it has with nursing homes across the country, which aims to decrease hospitalizations and thereby coverage expenses for the conglomerate. The document demand letter follows a Guardian investigation into the initiative.

“Put simply, these allegations suggest that UHG [UnitedHealth Group] appears to be prioritizing its bottom line at the expense of the health and safety of nursing home residents enrolled in UHG I-SNPs,” Wyden and Warren wrote, referring to a type of UnitedHealth plan for long-term nursing home residents. “Nursing home residents and their families should not live in fear of a for-profit health care company withholding care when it is most critical.”

UnitedHealth argues the program is designed to curb “unnecessary” hospitalizations. The company has vigorously denied the allegations in the Guardian’s 21 May investigation, which was based on thousands of confidential corporate and patient records, public records requests and court files, interviews with more than 20 current and former UnitedHealth and nursing home employees, and two whistleblower declarations submitted to Congress in May through the non-profit legal group Whistleblower Aid.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/07/unitedhealth-nursing-home-hospitalizations