UnitedHealth’s defamation lawsuit against the Guardian has been tossed by a U.S. district court judge in Delaware, who reviewed the case on Monday, reports Chad Van Alstin of HealthExec.
Van Alstin reports, “In its complaint, UnitedHealth had accused reporters at the Guardian of six counts of defamation, stemming from a May 2025 story that detailed how the healthcare company’s insurance arm paid incentives to long-term patient care facilities to reduce hospital transfers, resulting in at least one serious brain injury.
“Delaware Superior Court Judge Calvin L. Scott, Jr., threw out all six of the defamation claims, writing in his ruling that the company had resorted to cherry picking and twisting aspects of the Guardian’s report to make it appear to claim things that weren’t actually in there.
“Further, Scott agreed with the defense that the outlet was within its rights to characterize the incentive payments as ‘secret’ and made ‘quietly,’ claims that UnitedHealthcare took issue with. The judge found that, based on the reporting and evidence, the Guardian had an affirmative defense against defamation because its reporting was “substantially true” enough to have an affirmative defense against defamation.
“The court noted that the bar to prove defamation claims against a large company like UnitedHealth would require that facts in a report be knowingly false and have damaged the company.”
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