Menu
October 04, 2022 : UnitedHealth Group said Monday that it finalized its acquisition of Change Healthcare, closing the approximately $8 billion deal a couple of weeks after a judge denied a challenge from federal regulators.
UnitedHealth is combining the technology company with its Optum component. The health care giant said that combination would simplify clinical, organizational, and payment processes for care providers and billpayers.
Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group’s rapidly expanding Optum business process pharmacy claims, delivers care, and supplies technology support. UnitedHealth Group Inc. also operates one of the nation’s largest health insurers.
The U.S. Department of Justice had sued in February to thwart the deal. Regulators contended at the time that the agreement would put too much knowledge about health care claims in the hands of one organization.
But U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols disseminated an order last month denying the government’s proposal to scrap the deal.
Nichols commented in a 58-page memorandum that UnitedHealth’s incentives to safeguard customer data as it grows its businesses outrank motivations to misuse the information. The judge also stated that UnitedHealth has agreed to sell part of Change Healthcare’s business to a private-equity firm that will subsidize in it and likely preserve competition.
UnitedHealth declared the deal in early 2021.
