Almost seven months after the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed its initial complaint to halt the merger between United Healthcare Group (United Healthcare) and Change Healthcare due to anti-trust concerns, the parties completed their $7.8 billion merger on October 3, 2022. In its initial complaint, the DOJ alleged that a merger between United Healthcare, one of the largest health insurers, and Change Healthcare, a leader in healthcare technology that supported some of United Healthcare’s key competitors, would lead to unfair competition. The DOJ further alleged that the merger would allow United Healthcare to unfairly use Change Healthcare’s data to bolster its subsidiaries. On September 19, 2022, the Court ruled in favor of the merger and rejected the alleged antitrust issues raised by the DOJ.
In addition to permitting the merger to move forward, the Court ordered Change Healthcare to divest the claim editing business ClaimsXten to the private equity firm TPG Capital for $2.2 billion. ClaimsXten offers claims editing technology and was the main point of direct competitive overlap between United Healthcare and Change Healthcare.
