Federal Trial Begins Over Proposed UnitedHealth Mega-Merger

The current and former CEOs of UnitedHealth Group Inc. are expected to testify in an upcoming trial in which the insurance giant faces off against the U.S. Department of Justice over its multibillion-dollar plan to buy Change Healthcare.

Bloomberg has a report on the looming case, set to begin Aug. 1, that’s a big deal for both UnitedHealth’s expansion plans and the Biden administration’s antitrust agenda.

UnitedHealth first announced the deal for Nashville-based Change Healthcare in early 2021, seeking to fold Change into its Optum health-services division. Valued at roughly $13 billion at the time of the announcement, it was easily the largest M&A deal announced by a Minnesota company last year.

However, federal regulators — along with attorneys general in Minnesota and New York — sued to block the acquisition, claiming the deal would hurt competition because it would give UnitedHealth too much insight about its rivals in the insurance and health technology fields using data collected by Change Healthcare. 

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