Investors are urging UnitedHealth to disclose the costs of denials of care

Seven UnitedHealth Group shareholders are calling on the healthcare conglomerate to produce a report on how often its policies lead to the denial or delay of care, and the impact on patients and the economy.

The proposalwhich could be voted on by UnitedHealth’s investors later this year at the company’s annual meeting, comes as the company is under enormous public scrutiny for tactics such as prior authorization and denial of care. The murder of the CEO of UnitedHealth’s health insurance company in early December set off a firestorm of anger — not against the alleged killer, but against health insurers like UnitedHealth, which many blame for the industry’s dysfunction.

The shareholders who submitted the proposal are members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a nonprofit coalition of more than 300 institutional investors organizing around issues of health equity, climate and labor rights. Much of the group’s work in recent years has focused on how drug company policies affect access to treatments.