U.S. Launches Antitrust Investigation of Healthcare Giant UnitedHealth
Investigators have been interviewing healthcare industry officials who compete with UnitedHealth
The Justice Department has launched an antitrust investigation into UnitedHealth Group, owner of the nation’s biggest health insurer, a leading manager of drug benefits and a sprawling network of doctor groups.
The investigators have in recent weeks been interviewing healthcare industry representatives in sectors where UnitedHealth competes, including doctor groups, according to people with knowledge of the meetings.
During their interviews, investigators have asked about issues including certain relationships between the company’s UnitedHealthcare insurance unit and its Optum health-services-arm, which owns physician groups, among other assets.
Investigators have asked about possible impacts of the company’s doctor-group acquisitions on rivals and consumers, the people said.
Spokespeople for UnitedHealth Group and the Justice Department declined to comment. UnitedHealth executives have said that Optum and UnitedHealthcare don’t favor one another, and routinely work with competitors.
The probe comes as the Biden administration’s antitrust enforcers have stepped up investigations of some of the country’s biggest companies, such as Apple, Alphabet’s Google unit, Amazon and Live Nation. The DOJ’s top antitrust official, Jonathan Kanter, has pushed to revive enforcement of laws that restrain monopolies in the U.S. The department has had mixed results on merger enforcement, but its challenges to monopolies are ongoing.
The administration has signaled the healthcare industry is a priority in its antitrust efforts.
The UnitedHealth investigation is taking aim at a healthcare giant that has been a previous antitrust target, though the company was able to beat back a Justice Department challenge to an acquisition two years ago.
UnitedHealth, based in Minnetonka, Minn., had $372 billion in revenue last year. Its insurance unit covers about 53 million people, across a range of plans including employer, Medicaid and Medicare coverage.
After years of acquisitions, Optum includes about 90,000 physicians, as well as surgery centers, an array of health data and technology units, and one of the largest pharmacy-benefit managers.