DOJ, state AGs sue to block UnitedHealth’s acquisition of Amedisys

The Justice Department, together with the Attorneys General of Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York, confirmed filing a civil antitrust lawsuit to block UnitedHealth’s (UNH) proposed $3.3B acquisition of rival home health and hospice services provider Amedisys (AMED). The complaint filed in the District of Maryland alleges that the transaction would eliminate competition between UnitedHealth and Amedisys. “Since UnitedHealth’s prior acquisition of Amedisys’s home health and hospice rival LHC Group Inc. in 2023, Defendants have been two of the largest home health and hospice providers in the United States. Eliminating the competition between UnitedHealth and Amedisys would harm patients who receive home health and hospice services, insurers who contract for home health services, and nurses who provide home health and hospice services,” the DOJ stated. “We are challenging this merger because home health and hospice patients and their families experiencing some of the most difficult moments of their lives deserve affordable, high quality care options. The Justice Department will not hesitate to check unlawful consolidation and monopolization in the healthcare market that threatens to harm vulnerable patients, their families, and health care workers,” added Attorney General Merrick Garland.