Wyden and Warren Launch Major Investigation Into UnitedHealth Nursing Home Practices
Reports allege UnitedHealth’s incentive schemes appear to encourage nursing homes to use aggressive cost-cutting tactics and delay hospitalizations for residents enrolled in the company’s institutional special needs plans.
“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.”
Washington, D.C. – Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, launched an investigation of UnitedHealth Group’s (UHG) cost-cutting tactics in nursing homes after reports that these business practices have resulted in harm to the health and safety of vulnerable seniors and people with disabilities.
The investigation follows reports that residents in UHG-contracted nursing homes have experienced delays in hospitalization that may be attributable to incentive schemes that offer bonuses to nursing homes to maintain hospitalization rates below a certain threshold. In some instances, reporting alleges that these delays have resulted in permanent harm to residents, such as delayed treatment of a stroke. Reports also allege that UHG subsidiary Optum, which contracts directly with nursing homes, aggressively pushes residents to sign Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) or Do Not Intubate (DNI) orders as a part of the company’s broader cost savings program.
“We are concerned that these bonus programs provide a heavy incentive to nursing homes to limit hospitalizations of all kinds, even where necessary, in order to meet a metric that can be poorly suited to measure patient health and safety,” wrote the senators. “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.”
In the letter, Warren and Wyden request documents and information from the company about its reported incentive programs related to nursing homes’ hospitalization policies, advance directives, and marketing practices. The letter also seeks information about the role of federal and state oversight in UHG’s nursing home line of business.
“We are concerned that the methods UHG appears to rely on to deliver the high-quality care it purports to provide may in fact incentivize practices that threaten resident safety,” wrote the senators. “It is essential that care providers center the needs of the patient in all health care decisions.”
On July 29, 2025, UHG provided the senators’ offices with a briefing on these issues. In this briefing, UHG failed to allay concerns that its incentive schemes appear to pad the company’s profits at the expense of patient health and safety.
To address outstanding questions about UHG’s programs and their impact on residents, the senators are requesting documents and information from the company about its reported nursing home incentive programs by September 8, 2025.
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