UnitedHealthcare has been under scrutiny on several legal fronts in recent years.

In 2022, the Justice Department lost a challenge aimed at blocking Optum's acquisition of health-technology firm Change Healthcare. In that case, the Justice Department focused on the alleged anticompetitive potential of putting the insurer and Change under the same corporate parent.
The department has been scrutinizing UnitedHealth's planned acquisition of home-health company Amedisys for about $3.3 billion. Amedisys said last August that it had received a second request for information about the proposed deal from Justice Department antitrust enforcers.
A private antitrust suit by the California hospital system Emanate Health alleges that the company tried to strong-arm the nonprofit over its affiliated physician groups and exert control over primary care doctors in its region.
Justice Department officials are investigating Medicare billing issues, including the company's practices around documenting patients' illnesses. Payments to Medicare plans go up if patients have more health conditions, so aggressive documentation practices by doctors and other health-care providers can be lucrative for insurers such as UnitedHealthcare.
Investigators have asked whether and how the link between UnitedHealthcare and Optum medical groups might affect its compliance with federal rules that cap how much a health-insurance company retains from the premiums it collects from customers.

Related: Optum Rx, UnitedHealth's PBM, sued by independent pharmacy over backdoor fees

In addition to these legal battles, pharmacies nationwide reported delays in filling prescriptions last week following cyberattack against Change Healthcare.

Instant Insights /

UnitedHealth is target of DOJ probe for antitrust violations related to its Optum unit

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