NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 18:01 ET — After-hours
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated shares fell 0.9% to $328.94 in after-hours trading on Monday, after a report said its UnitedHealthcare unit is postponing a policy that would have tightened reimbursement for remote physiologic monitoring starting Jan. 1, 2026.
The policy touches remote physiologic monitoring — often called remote patient monitoring — which uses connected devices to send readings such as blood pressure or weight from a patient’s home to clinicians. Insurers and regulators have been watching the category as spending rises and billing practices draw scrutiny.
That scrutiny is landing as investors look ahead to UnitedHealth’s full-year results and its 2026 guidance, when the insurer is expected to lay out how it plans to manage medical costs and regulatory risks across its insurance and health-services businesses.
UnitedHealthcare’s published medical policy for commercial and individual exchange plans lists remote physiologic monitoring as “proven and medically necessary” for heart failure and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and “not medically necessary” for other conditions, including diabetes, COPD and obstructive sleep apnea.
The debate matters for payers because coverage rules can shift both utilization and costs, and for providers and health-tech vendors because they shape how widely remote monitoring is prescribed. Federal watchdogs have also flagged program-integrity risks as the service expands across Medicare.
Separate from remote monitoring, investors have also been parsing fresh scrutiny of insurer-owned pharmacy operations after a Wall Street Journal analysis found excessive prescription refilling across U.S. pharmacies cost Medicare and patients about $3 billion between 2021 and 2023, with mail-order pharmacies accounting for a disproportionate share of surplus pills.
In another development being watched in the managed-care space, a federal judge in Idaho granted UnitedHealthcare a preliminary injunction on Dec. 22 that blocks the state’s insurance director from enforcing state unfair-competition law against the insurer based on the state’s interpretations in a cease-and-desist order and bulletin tied to Medicare Advantage marketing and broker commissions, court records show.
UnitedHealth’s move came against a softer tape: the S&P 500 ETF fell 0.4% and the Dow ETF slipped 0.5%. Managed-care peers were mixed, with Humana down 0.2%, Elevance down 0.4% and Cigna down 0.2%, while CVS gained 0.5%.
UnitedHealth has been under an unusually bright investor spotlight in 2025 after higher-than-expected medical costs in its Medicare Advantage business triggered a sharp selloff earlier this year and pressured the broader health-insurance group.
The company has also been pointing to internal fixes. In a Dec. 19 update, CEO Stephen Hemsley said, “The work is already well underway. Several action plans have already been completed.” Reuters
For traders, the next major catalyst remains the company’s January earnings report and 2026 outlook, when investors will look for detail on medical cost trends, progress at Optum, and whether policy changes — including around remote monitoring and pharmacy operations — create new friction with providers or regulators.
On Monday, UnitedHealth traded between $327.36 and $334.25, underscoring how headline-driven the stock has become as the insurer heads into 2026 planning season.
