The Department of Justice is seeking to intervene in UnitedHealth Group's $3.3 billion acquisition of home health company Amedisys, and the company is already mounting a defense of the deal.
After the lawsuit was unveiled on Tuesday, UHG's Optum unit launched a website that aims to highlight the benefits of the combination in opposition to the DOJ's argument that allowing UnitedHealth to buy Amedisys would harm patients by reducing competition.
UnitedHealth says that, counter to DOJ's allegations, home health and hospice are already highly competitive, and combining the two companies will only "enhance" that. In metropolitan areas where 500,000 people live, 26 home health agencies on average operate to serve patients.
"Once combined, Optum and Amedisys would operate just a fraction of all the home health and hospice care markets nationally," the company said on the website. "This combination will not adversely impact services in the U.S., with competition remaining strong across all metropolitan and county rural areas."
The company added that UHG and Amedisys have "proactively" worked to address regulators' antitrust concerns by developing a divestiture plan. The two intend to sell off a "significant number" of home health and hospice centers to Austin, Texas-based VitalCaring.
VitalCaring currently operates 58 locations across six states, and is eyeing expansion, according to UHG. The company said VitalCaring is known for quality care and patient experience, and its CEO April Anthony has a "track record of success in building multiple successful home health and hospice companies virtually from scratch."
Anthony was a pivotal figure in building out home health company Encompass Health, for example, UnitedHealth said.
"VitalCaring is well equipped to effectively lead and grow the proposed divested care centers in the long-term," according to the website.
In its lawsuit, DOJ noted that Amedisys was initially set to be acquired by OptionCare, which did not compete directly with Amedisys in the home health space, but OptionCare was ultimately outbid by UnitedHealth.
The agency argued that the deal follows a pattern of behavior from industry behemoth UHG.
"UnitedHealth’s plan to extinguish Amedisys as a competitor is the result of an intentional, sustained strategy of acquiring, rather than beating, competition," the DOJ said in the lawsuit.