Court Finalizes Doj’s Settlement In Unitedhealth, Amedisys Merger

On Wednesday, a district court finalized the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) settlement regarding UnitedHealth Group’s (NYSE: UNH) acquisition of Amedisys.

The settlement, approved by the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, resolves the DOJ’s and four states’ opposition to the merger. The settlement requires the companies to divest at least 164 home health and hospice locations worth approximately $528 million in annual revenue – the highest number of outpatient facilities ever required to resolve a merger challenge. 

Additionally, the merger requires Amedisys to pay a $1.1 million civil penalty for false certification.

“This is a tremendous outcome for competition in the healthcare industry, where competition itself is critical to the public interest and the well-being of all Americans,” Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division said in a statement. “I commend the Antitrust Division’s Staff for prosecuting this case throughout a contentious litigation to reach this settlement on behalf of seniors, hospice patients, nurses and their families.”

The settlement, announced in August, also:

– Requires UnitedHealth to divest eight additional locations if it does not get regulatory approval for the divestiture without the additional locations

– Imposes a monitor to supervise the divestiture and UnitedHealth’s compliance with the consent decree

– Provides the buyers of the divested facilities with assets, personnel and relationships that allow them to compete against UnitedHealth in overlapping markets

– Adds “robust protections” to strengthen adherence and deter interference with buyers’ ability to compete

– Requires Amedisys to train its corporate and field leadership on antitrust compliance

UnitedHealth’s $3.3 billion acquisition of Amedisys closed in August after a two-year saga complicated by antitrust concerns. The DOJ sued to block the deal in 2024, calling the deal “presumptively anticompetitive and illegal.”

In May, the companies struck a deal to sell home health and hospice locations to the Pennant Group (Nasdaq: PTNG) and BrightSpring Health Services (Nasdaq: BTSG). 

Pennant acquired 54 locations in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama for $146.5 million. The company said that the deal, closed in October, would allow it to create a “center of strength” in the Southeast and is in the process of integrating the facilities. 

Four BrightSpring affiliates acquired an undisclosed number of locations. The company’s leaders said in October that they planned for the deal to be finalized in Q4. 

Amedisys previously planned to divest locations to home health and hospice provider VitalCaring, but a federal court later blocked the deal. 

The post Court Finalizes DOJ’s Settlement In UnitedHealth, Amedisys Merger appeared first on Home Health Care News.