AHA continues to voice concerns over proposed UnitedHealth Group acquisition of Change Healthcare

AHA yesterday sent a letter to the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division expressing its serious concern with the adequacy of any remedy to resolve the anticompetitive impact of UnitedHealth Group’s acquisition of Change Healthcare. UHG in January announced its intent to combine its Optum health services subsidiary with Change Healthcare, a health care technology firm, to provide software and data analytics, technology-enabled services and research, advisory and revenue cycle management services.

At the time, AHA argued that the deal would distort “decisions about patient care and claims processing and denials to the detriment of consumers and health care providers and further increase UHG’s already massive market power.” In the newest letter AHA reiterated that “it is highly unlikely that any remedy will preserve the substantial level of competition between the parties that will be lost if the transaction is completed.”