The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Nov. 12 alleging that the purchase could increase home healthcare prices across 23 states and in Washington, D.C. The Attorneys General of Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York have also joined the complaint.
Optum argues on the website — with a URL of www.improvinghomecare.com — that combining with Amedisys “will improve care within the deeply personal home health and hospice environments.”
“The Amedisys combination with Optum would be pro-competitive and further innovation, leading to improved patient outcomes and greater access to quality care,” Optum said on the site. “We will vigorously defend against the Department of Justice’s overreaching interpretation of the antitrust laws.”
Optum said that in metropolitan areas with approximately 500,000 residents, there are an average of 26 home health agencies serving the area. The company argues that this illustrates the highly fragmented nature of the home health industry and the numerous options available to patients for home healthcare.”
“Once combined, Optum and Amedisys would operate just a fraction of all the home health and hospice care markets nationally,” the company said. “This combination will not adversely impact services in the U.S., with competition remaining strong across all metropolitan and county rural areas.”
UnitedHealth’s Optum first announced its plans to merge with Amedisys in June 2023. The Baton Rouge, La.-based company was founded in 1982 and provides home health, hospice and high-acuity care services across more than 500 care centers in 37 states and the District of Columbia. Amedisys shareholders approved the acquisition in September 2023.
The proposed merger has been under an antitrust review by the DOJ since August 2023. In March 2024, Oregon regulators opened their own review after a preliminary report found the deal could hurt competition in the state’s home health markets.
Amedisys and UnitedHealth agreed in June to sell an undisclosed number of care centers to VitalCaring Group to make the deal more palatable to regulators.
