Shareholders Rally in Defense of Patients with Call for UnitedHealth Group to Publish Report on Impacts of Corporate Acquisitions

Request comes amid growing public alarm about corporate consolidation in the healthcare sector.

New York, NY, December 2025 — A coalition of faith- and values-based investors has filed a new shareholder resolution calling on UnitedHealth Group Inc. (“UNH”) to publish a report analyzing and describing the healthcare consequences of its corporate acquisition strategy. The request comes as public alarm and regulatory concern grow about the likelihood that UNH’s vertical integration strategy is leading to less effective and more expensive care for patients and other consumers across the country.

Acquisitions have been a central driver of UNH’s growth strategy over the past decade. As a direct result UNH now employs more physicians than any other company or organization in the United States. This has granted UNH immense influence over the experiences of patients across the country through their direct role in access to, quality, and delivery of care. In recent years, the company has purchased more than 300 surgery centers, acquired Change Healthcare to absorb its leading role in medical payment processing and analytics and bought LHC Group, the third-largest home healthcare provider. Most recently, UNH closed on its purchase of Amedisys, a major home health and hospice company.

In addition to requesting the report the resolution articulates risks to patients and the wider healthcare sector associated with UNH’s vertical integration strategy, including:

• Physician practices and facilities owned by UNH may receive preferential reimbursement compared to independent providers, reducing patient choice and access to care and undermining small health-focused businesses across the country.
• Narrow networks and care management protocols can steer patients to UHG-owned facilities, leading to delays, higher out-of-pocket costs, or foregone care.
• Clinical outcomes may be affected, as studies have shown increased complications in certain procedures following physician integration with large systems.

The report requested in this latest shareholder resolution would help foster more robust transparency through the disclosure and description of data, including patient outcomes before and after acquisitions, prior authorization trends, and changes in the design and structure of provider networks.

“With healthcare costs skyrocketing across the United States and a growing number of American families losing their access to healthcare altogether, there is an urgent need for more transparency around the conduct and impact of the health sector’s most influential players,” said Timnit Ghermay of the Congregation des Soeurs des Saints Noms de Jesus et de Marie, lead filer on the resolution. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant. With this resolution, shareholders are hoping to gain a clearer sense of what UNH’s conduct and growth strategy has meant and will continue to mean for the health and wellbeing of the American public. The clarity this requested report would bring about can only help create a more data-driven, evidence-based and responsive healthcare system.”

“Healthcare in the United States is unaffordable,” said Lydia Kuykendal, Director of Shareholder Advocacy at Mercy Investment Services, Inc. “Every year, we spend more money than any other nation only to get sicker and deeper in debt. For insight into this problem, it’s important to monitor UnitedHealth Group (UNH), as it’s one of the largest corporate entities in the healthcare ecosystem. As shareholders of UNH, we believe that it is vital to understand how the expansion of the company beyond the traditional insurance business model impacts the delivery of healthcare. A report outlining information around these impacts could help investors better understand the risks and possible opportunities for this new enterprise.”

“With over $400 billion in annual revenue and nearly 2,700 subsidiaries, UnitedHealth has its hands in nearly every aspect of American health care,” said Wendell Potter, President of the Center for Health and Democracy. “It sells insurance through UnitedHealthcare. It delivers care through Optum’s 90,000 doctors. It manages prescriptions for 62 million people through OptumRx. And through Change Healthcare, it acts as the claims processing middleman for more than one-third of the U.S. health care system. In short, it’s the closest thing we’ve ever seen to a single-payer system in America—only it’s run for profit. And the public and shareholders should have far more transparency into this behemoth.”

CONTACT:
Alex Tucciarone 
Director of Communications
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
atucciarone@iccr.org

About the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is a broad coalition of more than 300 institutional investors collectively representing over $4 trillion in invested capital. ICCR members, a cross-section of faith-based investors, asset managers, pension funds, foundations, and other long-term institutional investors, have over 50 years of experience engaging with companies on environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) issues that are critical to long-term value creation.  ICCR members engage hundreds of corporations annually in an effort to foster greater corporate accountability. Visit our website www.iccr.org and follow us on LinkedIn, Bsky Social, and Facebook.