The DOJ launched an investigation into UnitedHealth before the CEO was killed
Andrew Witty of UnitedHealthcare, sent this message to the insurance giant’s employees in the hours after fellow CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed outside a Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4.
Several top executives at UnitedHealthcare were under investigation by the Department of Justice, although it is unclear whether CEO Brian Thompson was part of that investigation before his murder.
Thompson was shot and killed in midtown Manhattan Wednesday morning in what police are calling a targeted attack.
There were reports that executives were accused of insider trading and fraud, and last year the DOJ launched an investigation into whether the nation’s largest insurer was unfairly restricting competitors and monopolizing.
Last month, the DOJ and the attorneys general of Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey and New York filed a lawsuit to block UnitedHealth Group Incorporated’s proposed $3.3 billion acquisition of rival home health and hospice provider Amedisys Inc.
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UnitedHealthcare signs are displayed outside a store in the Queens area of New York, Monday, Jan. 14, 2013. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
The transaction, according to the complaint, would eliminate competition between UnitedHealth and Amedisys.
By eliminating competition, patients receiving home health and hospital services would be harmed, as would insurers who contract for home health services and the nurses who provide those services, according to the DOJ.
“We are challenging this merger because home and home health patients and their families who are experiencing the most difficult times in their lives deserve affordable, high-quality care,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said last month. “The Department of Justice will not hesitate to look into illegal mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare market that threaten to harm vulnerable patients, their families and healthcare professionals.”
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The CEO of UnitedHealthcare was shot and killed in NYC on Wednesday, December 4, 2024. (Fox News Digital/UnitedHealthcare/Fox News)
Both companies view each other as close competitors in home health and hospice services, and UnitedHealth’s proposal would eliminate that competition.
UnitedHealth has proposed divesting certain facilities from the VitalCaring Group to address some of the overlap between UnitedHealth and Amedisys, the DOJ said. But that proposal doesn’t minimize the damage to the more than 100 home health markets, hospitals and workers comps, the DOJ added, that generate more than a billion dollars a year and serve at least 200,000 patients, while employing at least 4,000 nurses.
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“America’s health care is wrong. Unless this $3.3 billion transaction is stopped, UnitedHealth Group will continue its stranglehold on home health care and hospice care, threatening seniors, their families and nurses,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice.
FOX Business reached out to UnitedHealth but has not heard back.
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