UnitedHealth vows to be a better company amid layoffs

UnitedHealth Group has laid off dozens of remote employees in healthcare technology and services marketing from its Optum unit, who were given two weeks notice in November, sources told Health Payer Specialist.

Fast Company has reached out to UnitedHealth for confirmation.

Those employees were based in “multiple states on the East coast and in the Midwest,” according to that report, and are among UnitedHealth’s roughly 400,000 employees across the U.S. (It is the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest healthcare insurer.)

The healthcare giant is just the latest company in a string of industries to announce layoffs, which have hit almost every sector of the American economy in 2025. The layoffs come amid fierce criticism of the company’s healthcare and insurance practices.

UnitedHealth Group and UnitedHealthcare have received backlash and widespread criticism over consumer allegations of costly insurance, overbilling, denial of necessary care, and patient privacy violations, among other complaints. (UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder in December 2024 was met with little sympathy by some Americans, as Fast Company previously reported.)

On Friday, the company released the first round of results of an independent audit of its business, saying it was committed “to setting a new standard of transparency for the health care marketplace,” and vowing to make improvements through “23 action plans”—with 65% to be completed by the end of 2025, and all 100% by the end of the first quarter of next year in March 2026.

Those include: enhancing policy governance and maintenance, strengthening processes for ongoing monitoring and tracking progress of corrective actions, enhancing risk, and optimizing manufacturer discount processes.

“We hope that you see these assessments as a commitment to setting a new standard of transparency for the health care marketplace, as we believe that you and every person who engages with our health system deserves to understand how we go about our work,” CEO Steve Hemsley said in the statement.