UnitedHealth Group has restricted employee salary increases to a range of 0–2% this year, with adjustments tied to performance, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.
The limited rises coincide with notifications of layoffs to an unspecified number of staff, according to the report.
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The US-based conglomerate is pursuing measures to lower operating costs, reduce the scale of its clinic network, and strengthen earnings in underperforming health plans and medical groups.
Its insurance arm is forecast to lose as many as 2.8 million members.
According to the report, that segment also plans to reduce operating expenses by nearly $1bn this year, partly through wider deployment of AI.
The group’s January outlook suggested revenue could decline this year for the first time since the 1980s.
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By GlobalDataGuidance for 2026 points to revenue exceeding $439bn, a 2% fall attributed to “planned right-sizing across the enterprise”.
Operating earnings are projected to top $24bn, with net margin expected at around 3.6%, compared with 2.7% reported for 2025.
Executives have previously indicated the group would divest or close around 550 clinics within its Optum Health division.
UnitedHealth is seeking to recover from a steep decline in profit last year.
Stephen Hemsley, the long-serving board chair and former CEO, returned to the top role in 2025 to lead the turnaround effort.
The company is also under pressure from a proposal by the Trump administration to curb payments for private Medicare Advantage plans, where UnitedHealth is the largest provider with more than eight million members at year-end, the report added.
UnitedHealth Group reported lower profit for 2025, citing Medicare funding reductions and costs linked to the Change Healthcare cyberattack.
Net earnings attributable to common shareholders fell 16% to $12.1bn from $14.4bn a year earlier, with the company also pointing to “accelerating medical cost trends”.
For the fourth quarter, net earnings attributable to shareholders stood at $10m, compared with $5.5bn in the same period a year earlier.
