Justice Department sues to block UnitedHealth acquisition of Change Healthcare

The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday sued to block UnitedHealth Group's $13 billion acquisition of Change Healthcare Inc.

The Justice Department filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alongside attorneys general from Minnesota and New York, alleging that the deal in which the health insurance company would acquire the health technology company would harm competition in the commercial health insurance market.

"Quality health insurance should be accessible to all Americans," Attorney General Merrick Garland said. "If America's largest health insurer is permitted to acquire a major rival for critical health care claims technologies it will undermine competition for health insurance and stifle innovation in the employer health insurance markets. The Justice Department is committed to challenging anticompetitive mergers, particularly those at the intersection of health care and data."

In the complaint, the Justice Department argued that the acquisition of Change Healthcare would give UnitedHealth access to sensitive data which it could use against its competitors.

Particularly, the complaint alleges UnitedHealth would acquire the data that Change Healthcare gathers when it helps process insurance claims, allowing UnitedHealth to see the rules its competitors use to process claims and undercut them.

"Unless the deal is blocked, United stands to see and potentially use its health insurance rivals' competitively sensitive information for its own business purposes and control these competitors' access to innovations in health care technology," Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Doha Mekki of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division said.

A spokeswoman for UnitedHealth subsidiary Optum said in a statement that the Justice Department's "deeply flawed position is based on highly speculative theories that do not reflect the realities of the health care system" and that the company would "defend our case vigorously," The New York Times reported.

A spokeswoman for Change Healthcare said it was still "working toward closing the merger as we comply with our obligations under the merger agreement."