As UnitedHealth’s troubles mount, new CFO faces challenge to restore confidence

s·CFO DailyAs UnitedHealth’s troubles mount, new CFO faces challenge to restore confidenceBy Sheryl EstradaBy Sheryl EstradaSenior Writer and author of CFO DailySheryl EstradaSenior Writer and author of CFO DailySheryl Estrada is a senior writer at Fortune, where she covers the corporate finance industry, Wall Street, and corporate leadership

She also CFO Daily.SEE FULL BIO An analyst weighs in on what Wayne DeVeydt should prioritize in his new role as CFO

Getty ImagesGood morning

Rex will become a strategic advisor to the CEO, Stephen J

DeVeydt, most recently a managing director and operating partner at Bain Capital, will assume the CFO role effective Sept. 2

The company shocked on July 29 by reporting unexpectedly weak quarterly results, according to Fortune’s Geoff Colvin

As Colvin writes: “The crisis first manifested in April

UnitedHealth Group was emerging from the trauma of executive Brian Thompson’s high-file murder in December when the company released first-quarter fits far below Wall Street’s expectations

A month later, CEO Andrew Witty abruptly resigned for unspecified personal reasons, and former CEO Stephen Hemsley returned to the job

The stock plummeted again.” (You can read the complete report here.) Managing risk and costs Now, DeVeydt—also former chairman and CEO of Surgery Partners and former CFO at Anthem (now Elevance)—will need to play a significant role in steering UnitedHealth back on course

The company has four main segments: UnitedHealthcare (coverage), Optum Health (care dery), Optum Insight (software and analytics), and Optum Rx (pharmacy benefits)

Industry analysts say the road ahead won’t be easy

I asked Julie Utterback, senior equity analyst for health care at Morningstar, for her assessment. “UnitedHealth—and, frankly, the entire managed care organization (MCO) industry—needs to figure out how to balance the current mismatch between rates and medical utilization in their risk-bearing operations,” she told me

This blem spans the U.S. health care system: higher-than-anticipated medical costs with insufficient premium increases began in Medicare Advantage in late 2023, spread to Medicaid in mid-2024, and now pressure individual exchanges and at-risk employer plans, Utterback said.In other words, rising health costs are outpacing premiums, which is hurting fits for insurers UnitedHealth

In addition, UnitedHealth also faces pressures within its Optum Health unit, where, in some arrangements, the firm not only ders caregiving services but also assumes the risk of managing a patient’s overall health, she said

For MCOs to return to target margins, they need to secure better compensation for the risk they assume across the U.S. health care system, she added

Regarding DeVeydt’s priorities as CFO, Utterback said finance organizations will continue to emphasize cost controls

Further adoption of AI and other digital tools to imve back-office efficiency will remain a focus, although UnitedHealth has already prioritized such initiatives for several years, she noted

DeVeydt steps into the CFO role next month with a formidable to-do list, and the future of UnitedHealth’s financial recovery on the line

Sheryl Estradasheryl.estrada@fortune.comLeaderboardCostin Corneanu was named EVP and CFO of Amtrak, effective Aug. 4

Until then, Winbigler will remain in her EVP role as chief transformation officer

Before joining Amtrak, Corneanu spent eight years at Spirit Airlines and four years at US Airways

Kalani Reelitz, CFO of Compass, has resigned, effective Aug. 22, according to an SEC filing

Scott Wahlers, the chief accounting officer at the company for seven years, was appointed as the new CFO

Before joining Compass, Wahlers spent 16 years at WebMD, where he served as VP of finance, controller, and treasurer

The real surprise, however, was a steep downward revision to prior months: May and June job gains were lowered by a combined 258,000, according to EY-Parthenon Chief Economist Gregory Daco

With employment rising by only 19,000 in May and 14,000 in June, the three-month average payroll growth has dropped to just 35,000—down sharply from 123,000 a year ago."With persistent policy uncertainty, tariffs, and diminished immigration flows paralyzing employers, the U.S. economy is now flirting with job losses, revealing a labor market that is much weaker than most Fed policymakers had believed; the Fed is now behind the curve," Daco said in an .Employment appears set for a further summer slowdown as firms, facing renewed cost volatility from escalating trade tensions, remain focused on managing labor costs through reduced hiring, performance-based layoffs, restrained wage growth, and lower entry-level wages, he said.On Friday, President Donald Trump ordered the firing of Dr

Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of the BLS, as the administration grappled with unexpectedly weak jobs numbers that included the large downward revision of the last two months of jobs data, Fortune reported

Going deeper"How Companies Benefit From Sharing Data" is a report in the Wharton journal

Huan Tang, a fessor of finance at Wharton, argues that there’s a new way to understand how firms interact and create value in the digital economy

Tang’s re uncovers a hidden network of inter-firm data flows, revealing that companies are connected not only by ducts or supply chains, but also by the information they exchange.Overheard"I see a lot of young people wanting to take the easy route without working so hard

But the truth is, you have to make sacrifices

You have to put yourself through a lot of discomfort."—Sara Sabry told Fortune in an interview

The then 28-year-old had to wake up at 4:30 a.m. for early-morning training and bioastronautics re, before reporting to her full-time job as CTO of a Berlin-based startup by 9 a.m

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