UnitedHealth Cleans House

Skolnick welcomes the upcoming changes.

"The CFO had to fall on a sword," says Skolnick, who has a fair value rating on the company's stock. "Ditto for the HR director. ... There really isn't anything here that isn't obvious."

Two big matters remain undecided, however. UnitedHealth has yet to determine just how much its past option grants will cost the company. It has said only that the charge will be "material" -- exceeding the hundreds of millions of dollars it has already warned about -- and has deemed its past financial statements unreliable in the meantime.

In addition, UnitedHealth has yet to reveal a finalized retirement package for McGuire. Critics have sought to block the rich benefits that McGuire's contract could deliver to him. Skolnick, for one, hopes that new company Chairman Richard Burke will listen.

"They need to keep that a very skinny retirement package; if they don't, it will mean another leg down for the stock -- at least temporarily," she says. "But I suspect that Richard Burke understands."