A departing senior Elevance Health executive is pushing back against demands from the Justice Department to depose him in a Medicare Advantage fraud lawsuit against the insurer that stretches back several years.
On May 6, Elevance asked a New York federal court to block the deposition of Peter Haytaian, who previously oversaw the company’s Medicare Advantage business and most recently served as president of the company’s health services division, Carelon, until May 4.
Elevance announced in late February that Mr. Haytaian was leaving the company “to devote more time to family commitments,” though he will remain as a special advisor to President and CEO Gail Boudreaux through the end of 2026. According to an April 27 letter filed with the court, the government said it first contacted Elevance about deposing Mr. Haytaian on Feb. 24, two days before the company announced his departure. Elevance has said the deposition request is unrelated to his exit.
The deposition dispute is playing out as Elevance navigates a separate fight with CMS over its MA risk adjustment data submission practices. In April, the company disclosed it had set aside $935 million to cover costs from a possible suspension of enrollment into some of its plans following alleged noncompliance with federal rules. Elevance has framed that dispute as a historical payment disagreement unrelated to its current practices.
The MA case in which Mr. Haytaian is being asked to testify was originally filed in 2020. The government alleges Elevance (then Anthem) violated the False Claims Act by knowingly failing to delete inaccurate diagnosis codes it submitted to CMS for risk adjustment purposes, instead using a retrospective chart review program to identify additional codes that could generate higher MA payments. The complaint describes the program as “a cash cow” that generated more than $100 million per year in additional revenue during certain periods. The case survived Elevance’s motion to dismiss in 2022 and has been in extended discovery since.
The two sides have gone back and forth on the deposition question since mid-April. In an effort to resolve the dispute, the government offered to limit the interview time and shared the topics it planned to ask about in advance, but Elevance declined to make Mr. Haytaian available.
The case is focused on diagnosis codes Elevance submitted to CMS for dates of service from 2012 through the end of 2015. Mr. Haytaian served as president of Anthem’s government business division, which includes the MA segment, from June 2014 through March 2018. From then onward, his roles had no supervisory connection to MA operations.
The DOJ is arguing that Mr. Haytaian was directly involved in the chart review program and helped shape what it described as a “revenue-focused culture” at Anthem. The government added that Mr. Haytaian should be deposed because of his involvement in decisions about employee terminations, provider sanctions, and communications with Anthem’s board about the chart review program — characterizations that Mr. Haytaian directly disputed with the court on May 5.
“Because my involvement with the Medicare Advantage business was limited to high-level oversight, I was not personally involved in designing, implementing, or approving how Anthem’s retrospective chart review program was configured or operated during the time period that I understand is at issue in this case (from 2012 up through 2016),” he said.
Mr. Haytaian also cited personal burdens around testifying, including caring for his father, who was recently diagnosed with cancer.
“Properly preparing for a deposition that covers my tenure at the company (which spans over 20 years) would require an extensive review of materials and a substantial amount of time, which necessarily would divert significant time away from my responsibilities for the transition, as well as time away from my father,” he wrote.
“This is a standard ongoing discovery dispute responding to the government’s request to depose Mr. Haytaian,” a spokesperson for Elevance told Becker’s.
“The company asked the government to identify the areas where Mr. Haytaian had such unique, first-hand knowledge that it intended to ask at his deposition, and it declined to do so during the parties’ discussions. As a result, we opposed the deposition, and therefore, that issue is now before the Court. Mr. Haytaian has not overseen the company’s government business (including Medicare Advantage) for more than eight years and until this request the government had never tried to make Mr. Haytaian part of discovery in this case, which has taken place over several years. The government’s arguments in its brief mischaracterize his involvement and rely on information taken out of context, which Elevance Health will address in due course. The government’s deposition request is entirely unrelated to his departure, and the company categorically rejects any suggestion of a culture of improper financial pressure by Mr. Haytaian or anyone else.”
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