UnitedHealth Group Vows To Fight DOJ Challenge Of Optum’s Change Healthcare Deal – Forbes

UnitedHealth Group Inc. signage is displayed on a monitor on the floor of the New York Stock … [+] Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

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UnitedHealth Group Thursday outlined benefits of its Optum unit’s proposed $13 billion acquisition of the software and data analytics firm Change Healthcare in response to the U.S. Justice Department’s challenge of the deal.

The justice department last month sued in federal court to block UnitedHealth’s effort to buy Change, essentially saying UnitedHealth, which owns the nation’s largest health insurer, would get access to sensitive healthcare cost and pricing data on competitors. That, government lawyers argue, would be unfair and hurt competition.

“Quality health insurance should be accessible to all Americans,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said last month. “If America’s largest health insurer is permitted to acquire a major rival for critical health care claims technologies, it will undermine competition for health insurance and stifle innovation in the employer health insurance markets. The Justice Department is committed to challenging anticompetitive mergers, particularly those at the intersection of health care and data.”

But UnitedHealth fought back with a filing on Thursday, saying the deal would make healthcare transactions simpler and benefit consumers.

“With the distinct and complementary capabilities and skills of Change Healthcare, Optum will advance anew and more modern foundation to support the next generation health system,” UnitedHealth said in its statement and filing posted on its web site. “Our frictionless platform will help patients get a simplified consumer experience, lower costs, and get better point-of-care delivery due to improved adherence to best clinical evidence.”

Optum, a fast-growing part of UnitedHealth Group and a key reason the company has surpassed $300 billion in annual revenues, has said Change Healthcare will become a part of the OptumInsight business “to provide software and data analytics, technology-enabled services and research, advisory and revenue cycle management offerings to help make health care work better for everyone.”

In its filing on Thursday, UnitedHealth said the combination “reduce the estimated $267 billion the U.S. health care industry wastes annually on simply ensuring that health care providers submit valid and properly documented claims and that insurers pay the correct amount for the services provided.”

Further, UnitedHealth said the combination with Change will improve health outcomes and decrease denials of healthcare claims.

“The theories of competitive harm advanced by the Department of Justice (DOJ) have no basis in fact or law, and do not provide any basis for blocking what is clearly a pro-competitive, pro-consumer transaction,” UnitedHealth Group said.

Announced in January of last year, the Change acquisition was seen as a move by UnitedHealth and Optum to bolster the company’s efforts to improve health outcomes and population health.

While UnitedHealth continues to be the nation’s largest health insurance company, selling commercial, Medicaid and Medicare Advantage plans, it’s finding growth on the medical care provider side of the healthcare system. Optum owns one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers in OptumRx as well as an array of medical care provider businesses, including doctor practices, surgery centers and urgent care sites across the country.