Dive Brief:
UnitedHealth and Amedisys have agreed to a settlement with the Department of Justice allowing their $3.3 billion merger to go through.
The settlement, filed with the Maryland district court on Thursday, requires UnitedHealth and Amedisys to divest certain businesses in order to placate the DOJ’s concerns that the merger is anticompetitive.
The closure of the multi-billion dollar deal is a win for UnitedHealth, which originally proposed plans to acquire the home health and hospice provider in 2023. However, the merger has been tied up in litigation after the DOJ and four states sued to block it in November.
Dive Insight:
Lawyers for the federal government had argued that allowing UnitedHealth, which already owns a sweeping network of home health and hospice providers, to buy Amedisys would knock out competition in multiple markets.
In acquiring Amedisys, UnitedHealth would expand its home health and hospice business to an additional five states, and add almost 500 locations in the 32 states where UnitedHealth’s home health division already competes, regulators said.
UnitedHealth and Amedisys denied that the transaction would have anticompetitive effects. However, the companies had offered up multiple divestiture plans, but they failed to pass muster with federal regulators before Thursday’s settlement.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
