antitrust
Bulletins

The DOJ is suing to stop UnitedHealth from buying a data company

The Justice Department alleged the deal for the data-processing firm Change would give the insurer access to rivals' information.

A doctor wearing a lab coat and a stethoscope holds a phone.

The Justice Department is challenging the antitrust consensus of recent decades.

Photo: National Cancer Institute/Unsplash

The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Thursday to block UnitedHealth Group's planned acquisition of data-processing firm Change, which works extensively with rivals of the insurer.

The complaint alleges Change helps save consumers money "by ensuring accuracy, avoiding overpayments, and reducing administrative waste," and says United designed the deal to give it insight into other insurers' plans and payments. Minnesota and New York also joined the suit, arguing United would also be able to drive up its competitors' costs, which would then get passed on to consumers.

United said the deal would "increase efficiency and reduce friction in health care, producing a better experience and lower costs" and blasted the DOJ's theories as out-of-step with "the realities of the health care system."

Since the 1980s, many competition scholars have insisted "vertical" deals like United's purchase of a service provider more often created efficiencies than opportunities to undermine rivals, and those experts have often left analysis of data to privacy regulators.

The lawsuit is the latest sign that President Biden's antitrust enforcers are eschewing various aspects of recent decades' antitrust consensus in the face of corporate consolidation and the digital economy.

Ben Brody

Ben Brody (@ BenBrodyDC) is a senior reporter at Protocol focusing on how Congress, courts and agencies affect the online world we live in. He formerly covered tech policy and lobbying (including antitrust, Section 230 and privacy) at Bloomberg News, where he previously reported on the influence industry, government ethics and the 2016 presidential election. Before that, Ben covered business news at CNNMoney and AdAge, and all manner of stories in and around New York. He still loves appearing on the New York news radio he grew up with.

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