DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

The lawyer for William McGuire, the former chairman of UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH), said McGuire agreed to reprice his stock options and forgo $200 million, erasing the benefit tied to the timing of the options.

The lawyer said the remaining value of the options is the result of McGuire's performance at the company.

The Minnetonka, Minn., health insurer announced in October he would step down immediately as chairman and step down as chief executive by Dec. 1.

An outside law firm's probe found he was involved in millions of backdated stock options that benefited himself and other employees.

McGuire had agreed to the repricing of all his options from 1994 through 2002. At the end of 2005, his unexercised cash of stock options was valued at $1.78 billion.

Earlier Wednesday, UnitedHealth said it expects the amount of noncash compensation charges and cash charges related to its stock-option review to be material for certain periods and "significantly greater" than its prior estimate.

In recent trading, the company's New York Stock Exchange-listed shares were down $1.80, or 3.6%, at $47.77 in volume of 9.24 million compared with the average of 6.26 million.

-Jason Ma; 201-938-5400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com