Amid financial turmoil, UnitedHealth Group brings in new chief financial officer

UnitedHealth Group is bringing in an outsider as its new chief financial officer following months of unprecedented financial challenges at the nation’s largest health care company.

Wayne DeVeydt, 55, served from 2022 until recently as a managing director of the portfolio group at Bain Capital, a prominent private equity firm based in Boston.

Previously, he was the longtime CFO at Indiana-based Elevance, the health insurance giant formerly known as Anthem. The company runs for-profit health insurance businesses across the country that use the Blue Cross and Blue Shield brands.

DeVeydt becomes CFO at Eden Prairie-based UnitedHealth effective Sept. 2.

He will take over for John Rex, who has served as CFO at UnitedHealth since 2016. Rex will become a strategic adviser to chief executive Stephen Hemsley.

“Wayne DeVeydt combines deep financial acumen and operational experience with the mission-oriented and compassionate approach to health care that is a perfect fit for UnitedHealth Group,” Hemsley said in a statement.

The company’s massive UnitedHealthcare health insurance business announced Tuesday it would drop Medicare Advantage health plans, covering more than 600,000 people as one of several strategies to shore up finances. The company also disclosed this week just how badly it underpriced its health insurance products for 2025.

In Medicare Advantage, where UnitedHealthcare is the nation’s largest provider with nearly 8.5 million enrollees, the company significantly underestimated the accelerating medical trend and did not sufficiently modify benefits or plan offerings, Noel said.

The problem was compounded, he said, because rival companies in Medicare Advantage, which is a privatized version of the government benefits program, exited from a number of local market across the country.

DeVeydt served as a partner with the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers with a focus on the health care sector before joining Anthem in 2005. He served as the CFO at Anthem from 2007 to 2016.

He spent the next three years as chairman and CEO of Surgery Partners, Inc., a Nashville-based surgical services firm.

“I’ve been very fortunate to know John Rex for over two decades and am honored to follow a leader of his caliber,” DeVeydt said in a statement.

“This pivotal moment for UnitedHealth Group is the right time for a new yet greatly experienced executive like Wayne DeVeydt,” Rex said in a statement.

The new CFO will earn a base salary of $1 million plus a $1.2 million sign-on bonus. He’ll also participate in incentive compensation plans with an initial target annual bonus of $2 million.

DeVeydt is receiving stock-based compensation with an estimated value of $18 million, according to a Thursday disclosure with regulators.