UnitedHealth Group's stock has collapsed nearly 50% in 2025 after a leadership shake-up, surging medical costs, and a DOJ criminal probe into Medicare fraud.

Shares of UnitedHealth Group slumped 6% in premarket trading Thursday on a report that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the embattled health insurance provider for possible criminal Medicare fraud.

Stephen Hemsley ran UnitedHealth Group for more than a decade. It's a different company after four years with Andrew Witty in charge.

May 13 (UPI) -- UnitedHealth Group announced Tuesday CEO Andrew Witty will step down, citing "personal reasons." Witty will leave the role of CEO and be replaced by Stephen J. Hemsley, effective immediately.

UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley, who replaced Andrew Witty, said he has the right strategy in place “for the era ahead.”

UnitedHealth Group surprises investors with what its CEO said was an "unusual and unacceptable" quarterly earnings miss, and lowers its outlook for the full year due to higher-than-expected medical costs, sparking a more than 20% selloff in shares that reverberated across the sector.