Report: Department of Justice begins antitrust investigation into UnitedHealth Group

By KSTP

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened an antitrust investigation into Minnesota-based health insurance company UnitedHealth Group, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

UnitedHealth Group is a leading drug benefit manager with a network of doctor groups.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the DOJ is looking into the possible effects of UnitedHealth’s “Doctor group acquisitions on rivals and consumers.”

Previously, the DOJ sued to stop UnitedHealth’s purchase of medical payment manager “Change Healthcare” back in February 2022.

The DOJ was unsuccessful and the acquisition was completed later that year.

The report also claims that the DOJ is examining the company’s Medicare billing practices to see if doctors are aggressively characterizing their patients’ illnesses to fraudulently increase payments from the government. According to the Wall Street Journal, spokespeople for both the DOJ and UnitedHealth declined to comment.