NEW YORK (AP) — The Justice Department is suing to block UnitedHealth Group's $3.3 billion purchase of Amedisys, citing concerns the combination would hinder access to home health and hospice services in the U.S.
The antitrust complaint, filed in Maryland by the Justice Department and four states' attorneys general Tuesday, argues that a potential merger is illegal because the two companies are "such large competitors" already — and the deal would give UnitedHealth too much control in many local markets.
That would mean less choice for patients looking for affordable care, the suit alleges, as well as fewer employment options for nurses seeking competitive pay and benefits.
“American healthcare is unwell," Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, said in a prepared statement. “Unless this $3.3 billion transaction is stopped, UnitedHealth Group will further extend its grip to home health and hospice care, threatening seniors, their families and nurses.”
Tuesday's lawsuit follows UnitedHealth's acquisition of LHC Group Inc., another home health and hospice provider. Since that transaction's completion last year, the Justice Department said, UnitedHealth and Amedisys have emerged as two of the largest providers of home health and hospice care in the country.
The complaint alleges that UnitedHealth's plan to acquire Amedisys is the result of "an intentional, sustained strategy of acquiring, rather than beating, competition.” After completing the LHC acquisition, the suit says UnitedHealth prevented Amedisys' 2023 plans to merge with infusion provider OptionCare by paying a “breakup fee” — and then separately made its own acquisition offer, which Amedisys eventually accepted.
UnitedHealth is seeking to add Amedisys to Optum, its subsidiary that provides care as well as pharmacy and technology services. In a response Tuesday to the antitrust suit, Optum said the transaction “would be pro-competitive and further innovation.” It said it plans to “vigorously defend (itself) against the DOJ’s overreaching interpretation of the antitrust laws.”
Amedisys added that it also remains committed to the deal, which it believes “will create more opportunities to deliver quality, compassionate and value-based care to patients and their families.”
In details about the deal published on Optum's website, the company maintained Optum and Amedisys “would operate just a fraction" of all home health and hospice care markets nationwide when combined. Optum also noted plans to divest some of its care centers to home health provider VitalCaring upon the deal's completion. It said the divestments would aid competition but the Justice Department said that the proposal is inadequate.
Beyond its Optum unit, UnitedHealth Group also runs one of the nation’s largest health insurers, UnitedHealthcare. The Minnesota-based healthcare giant reported third-quarter net income of $6.06 billion on revenue of $100.82 billion.
Louisiana-based Amedisys reported third-quarter earnings of $16.9 million and a revenue of $587.7 million for the period.
Tuesday's lawsuit arrives in the final months of the Biden administration, which has been particularly aggressive in antitrust enforcement. In recent years, the Justice Department has also targeted companies accused of engaging in illegal monopolies and driving up prices across industries like entertainment, travel and tech.
The four states’ attorneys general joining Tuesday's suit against UnitedHealth and Amedisys are from Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey and New York.
FILE - A sign stands on UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s campus in Minnetonka, Minn., Oct. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law granting debt forgiveness to new army recruits who enlist to fight in Ukraine.
The measure, whose final version appeared on a government website Saturday, underscores Russia’s needs for military personnel in the nearly 3-year-old war, even as it fired last week a new intermediate-range ballistic missile.
According to Russian state news agency Interfax, the new legislation allows those signing up for a one-year contract to write off bad debts of up to 10 million rubles ($96,000). The law applies to debts for which a court order for collection was issued and enforcement proceedings had commenced before Dec. 1, 2024. It also applies to the spouses of new recruits.
Russia has ramped up military recruitment by offering increasing financial incentives, in some cases several times the average salary, to those willing to fight in Ukraine.
The strategy has allowed the military to boost its ranks in the conflict zone while avoiding another mobilization order. A “partial mobilization” in September 2022 sparked an exodus of tens of thousands of Russian men, who fled the country to avoid enlistment.
The intense and drawn-out war has strained Russian resources. Putin in September called for the military to increase its troops by 180,000.
The U.S., South Korea and Ukraine say North Korea sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia in October, some of whom have recently begun engaging in combat on the front lines, piling more pressure on Ukraine’s also weary and overstretched army.
The push for recruits coincides with a new intermediate-range ballistic missile the Kremlin fired at Ukraine on Thursday. Putin said it was in response to Kyiv’s use of American and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russia.
Ukraine’s Security Service showed The Associated Press on Sunday wreckage of the new experimental ballistic missile, which struck a factory in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
The fragments of the missile called Oreshnik – Russian for hazel tree, and which the Pentagon said is based on Russia’s RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile – have not been analyzed yet, according to security officials on site in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. The AP and other media were able to see the fragments before they were taken by investigators.
Charred, mangled wires and an ashy airframe the size of a large snow tire was all that remained of the weapon, which can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads.
“It should be noted that this is the first time that the remains of such a missile have been discovered on the territory of Ukraine," said an expert with Ukraine’s Security Service, who identified himself only by his first name Oleh because he wasn't authorized to discuss the issue with the media.
Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate said the missile was fired from the 4th Missile Test Range, Kapustin Yar, in Russia’s Astrakhan region and flew for 15 minutes before striking Dnipro. The missile had six warheads, each carrying six submunitions. The peak speed was 11 Mach.
Meanwhile, Moscow sent 73 drones into Ukraine overnight into Sunday. According to Ukraine’s air force, 50 drones were destroyed and four lost, likely having been electronically jammed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Russian forces over the past week had struck Ukraine with more than 800 guided aerial bombs, about 460 attack drones and more than 20 missiles.
In Russia, the Defense Ministry said that 34 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight into Sunday in four regions of western Russia, including Kursk, Lipetsk, Belgorod and one over the Oryol region.
A journalist looks on fragments of a rocket which struck Dnipro on November 21, at a center for forensic analysis in undisclosed location, Ukraine, Sunday Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A journalist walks in front of fragments of a rocket which struck Dnipro on November 21, at a center for forensic analysis in undisclosed location, Ukraine, Sunday Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Fragments of a rocket which struck Dnipro on November 21 are seen at a center for forensic analysis in undisclosed location, Ukraine, Sunday Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Fragments of a rocket which struck Dnipro on November 21 are seen at a center for forensic analysis in undisclosed location, Ukraine, Sunday Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Fragments of a rocket which struck Dnipro on November 21 are seen at a center for forensic analysis in undisclosed location, Ukraine, Sunday Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Fragments of a rocket which struck Dnipro on November 21 are seen at a center for forensic analysis in undisclosed location, Ukraine, Sunday Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Journalists film fragments of a rocket which struck Dnipro on November 21, at a center for forensic analysis in undisclosed location, Ukraine, Sunday Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Fragments of a rocket which struck Dnipro on November 21 are seen at a center for forensic analysis in undisclosed location, Ukraine, Sunday Nov. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
