As shares took yet another hit in Thursday’s session, down ~18%, J.P. Morgan analyst Lisa Gill weighed in. While many details remain under wraps, Gill pointed to a key development from earlier this year: a March report by a Special Master in the long-running DOJ case United States ex rel. Poehling v. UnitedHealth Group, Inc.
That report concluded the government had not proven that UnitedHealth knowingly held onto roughly 1.97 million unsupported diagnosis codes – meaning the company did not violate the False Claims Act. Crucially, the DOJ hadn’t reviewed patient medical records to verify whether those codes were truly improper, highlighting just how difficult it is to prove wrongdoing in Medicare Advantage coding by managed care organizations.
“We are not lawyers, and while this is independent from the reporting done by the Wall Street Journal, we think that it bears remembering as we receive new information,” Gill said on the matter.