If the deal goes through, UnitedHealth will control nearly 30 percent of home health or hospice services in eight different states.
On November 12, 2024, the Department of Justice along with four state attorneys general sued to block Option Care Health’s $3.3 billion acquisition of Amedisys Inc. The suit was brought in Maryland district court and includes the states of Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey and New York as plaintiffs.
Amedisys is the nation’s largest home health and hospice services provider. Option Care specializes in the provision of home infusion therapy. Option Care is owned by UnitedHealth Group, which as of a February 2023 merger, owns LHC Group, the nation’s second largest home healthcare provider. Per the DOJ’s complaint, UnitedHealth is also the United States’ largest employer of physicians, largest commercial health insurer and second largest pharmacy benefit manager.
The complaint alleges that competition between UnitedHealth and Amedisys forces both companies to improve patient services and offer higher wages to nurses. It identifies local markets where this merger is presumptively anticompetitive. If the deal goes through, UnitedHealth will control nearly 30 percent of home health or hospice services in eight different states.
UnitedHealth claims that the merger “would be pro-competitive and further innovation, leading to improved patient outcomes and greater access to quality care." UnitedHealth plans to defend the merger against the DOJ lawsuit.
UnitedHealth and Amedisys offered to divest assets to VitalCaring Group to ease the government’s concerns regarding competition. The DOJ expressed dissatisfaction with this solution in the complaint, alleging that VitalCaring is not financially sound enough to replace the competition lost by this merger. The complaint also emphasized that the proposed divestiture does not address the merger’s potential effect on labor markets.
This lawsuit arrives among increasing antitrust scrutiny on UnitedHealth. This September, the FTC brought an administrative complaint against the three largest pharmacy benefit managers, including Optum RX, owned by UnitedHealth. Additionally, the Department of Justice has announced their intention to focus on consolidation within the healthcare industry and formed a Task Force on Health Care Monopolies and Collusion. The DOJ unsuccessfully challenged UnitedHealth’s acquisition of a health-technology firm Change Healthcare in 2022.
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