Prosecutors Question Doctors About UnitedHealth’s Medicare Billing Practices

The Justice Department’s criminal healthcare-fraud unit is investigating UnitedHealth Group’s UNH -1.56%decrease; red down pointing triangle Medicare billing practices, including how the giant company deployed doctors and nurses to gather diagnoses that bolstered its payments, people familiar with the matter said.

The Wall Street Journal reported in May that the healthcare-fraud unit was overseeing a probe of the company’s Medicare business. The investigation dates back to at least last summer.