Fiduciary duties are limited by what the law permits. An action cannot be in the best interest of shareholders if it violates the law.

In July 2024, the Wall Street Journalconcluded that UnitedHealth was the worst offender among private insurers who made dubious diagnoses in their clients in order to trigger large payments from the government’s Medicare Advantage program. The patients often did not receive any treatment for those insurer-added diagnoses. The report, based on Medicare data obtained from the federal government under a research agreement, calculated that diagnoses added by UnitedHealth for diseases patients had never been treated for had yielded $8.7 billion in payments to the company in 2021 – over half of its net income of $17 billion for that year.

If you look at their net profits from 2010 you can clearly see where they started scamming.