Attorney General Anthony G. Brown, a multistate coalition, and the U.S. Department of Justice filed a proposed settlement requiring UnitedHealth Group to divest 164 home health and hospice locations in 19 states, including five in Maryland, and for Amedisys to pay a $1.1 million penalty, to resolve antitrust concerns over UnitedHealth’s $3.3 billion acquisition of Amedisys.
Per the news release distributed on Thursday, August 7: “Attorney General Anthony G. Brown, along with a multistate coalition and the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, filed a proposed settlement today requiring broad divestitures to resolve Plaintiffs’ challenge to UnitedHealth Group Incorporated’s (UnitedHealth) $3.3 billion acquisition of Amedisys, Inc. In addition, Amedisys would pay a $1.1 million civil penalty to the United States for falsely certifying that it had provided “true, correct, and complete” responses under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976.
“Home health providers deliver essential medical care where patients are most comfortable—at home,” said Attorney General Brown. “This settlement protects patients, families, and caregivers by preserving competition in the home health market, keeping care affordable, wages fair, and services accessible. Especially during life’s most vulnerable moments, Marylanders deserve a healthcare system that puts people, not profits, first.”
The proposed settlement would require UnitedHealth and Amedisys to divest 164 home health and hospice locations (including one affiliated palliative care facility) across 19 states, accounting for approximately $528 million in annual revenue. Five of those divestiture locations are in Maryland. By number of facilities, the settlement would secure the largest divestiture of outpatient healthcare services to resolve a merger challenge.
In addition, the proposed settlement would:
• Obligate UnitedHealth to divest eight additional locations if it fails to obtain regulatory approval for the divestiture of associated facilities without the additional locations.
• Impose a monitor to supervise UnitedHealth’s divestiture of the assets and compliance with the consent decree.
• Provide the divestiture buyers with the assets, personnel, and relationships to compete against UnitedHealth in the overlap areas—for example, in Salisbury, Maryland.
• Incorporate robust protections to strengthen adherence to the decree and deter interference with the divestiture buyers’ ability to compete.
As required by the Tunney Act, the proposed settlement, along with a competitive impact statement, will be published in the Federal Register. Any interested person should submit written comments concerning the proposed settlement within 60 days following the publication to Jill Maguire, Acting Chief, Healthcare and Consumer Products Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 Fifth Street NW, Suite 4100, Washington, DC 20530. At the conclusion of the public comment period, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland may enter the final judgment upon finding it is in the public interest.
UnitedHealth is a vertically integrated insurer, healthcare provider, pharmacy benefit manager, and healthcare software and services vendor headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. UnitedHealth acquired Amedisys’s home health and hospice rival LHC Group Inc. (LHC) in 2023. Amedisys is a home health and hospice services provider headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.”