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DOJ sues UnitedHealth amid $3.3 billion bid to buy home care giant Amedisys
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group Inc. is the focus of an antitrust lawsuit filed on Tuesday by the United States Department of Justice.
A UnitedHealth spokesperson confirmed with WCCO that the suit involves the health insurance giant’s proposed $3.3 billion acquisition of Louisiana-based Amedisys Inc., one of the country’s biggest home health and hospice care providers.
Bloomberg News reports the suit was filed days after a meeting last weekend between the justice department and heads of both health care companies failed to quell concerns of possible antitrust issues, despite the companies’ joint offer to sell off 100-plus clinics to a Texas-based competitor.
The justice department believes the acquisition could “lead to higher prices in home health care in regions where Amedisys is a main competitor” to LHC Group, Bloomberg reports, a business UnitedHealth purchased in 2023. Both companies operate in many of the same states, especially in the South.
This isn’t the first time the justice department has had UnitedHealth in its legal crosshairs. Just two years ago, it unsuccessfully sued the company amid its purchase of Change Healthcare, the IT firm targeted in the cyberattack in February that reportedly cost UnitedHealth $872 million due to a lack of multifactor authentication. UnitedHealth paid a Bitcoin ransom valued at $22 million.
Amedisys’ stock value dropped on Tuesday following news of the upcoming suit. A UnitedHealth spokesperson gave this statement to WCCO on Tuesday:
“The Amedisys combination with [subsidiary company] Optum would be pro-competitive and further innovation, leading to improved patient outcomes and greater access to quality care. We will vigorously defend against the DOJ’s overreaching interpretation of the antitrust laws.”
More than 47 million Americans get their health insurance from UnitedHealth.
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House Ethics Committee planned to vote Friday on whether to release report on Matt Gaetz
The House Ethics Committee, which has been conducting an investigation into sexual misconduct and obstruction allegations against Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, scheduled a vote for Friday on whether to release its report, according to three sources with knowledge of the committee’s work.
Hours after President-elect Donald Trump said he planned to nominate Gaetz to be attorney general, Gaetz resigned his congressional seat, effective immediately.
“I do not intend to take the oath of office for the same office in the 119th Congress, to pursue the position of Attorney General in the Trump Administration,” Gaetz said in his resignation letter obtained by CBS News
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that there was about an eight-week period during which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis could fill his seat by setting the date for a special election.
Now that Gaetz has resigned, it is unclear whether the panel will vote on releasing the report, since Gaetz is no longer in Congress.
There is precedent in Congress on the Senate side for an ethics committee report to become public after a member resigns from Congress, however. In 2011, this happened when Sen. John Ensign of Nevada resigned amid allegations that he tried to hide an extramarital affair.
But it’s not clear that that would apply to the House, leaving open the possibility that the report on Gaetz would not be released.
In June, the House Ethics Committee released a statement saying it was investigating a range of allegations against Gaetz, including sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, and bribery.
Multiple sources at the time told CBS News that four women had informed the House Ethics Committee that they had been paid to go to parties that included sex and drugs, and that Gaetz had also attended. The committee has Gaetz’s Venmo transactions that allegedly show payments for the women.
Gaetz has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has called the committee’s investigation a “frivolous” smear campaign.
Some of the allegations of sexual misconduct under review by the committee were also the subject of a previous Department of Justice probe into Gaetz. Federal investigators sought to determine if Gaetz violated sex trafficking and obstruction of justice laws, but no charges were filed.
The House Ethics Committee resumed its investigation into Gaetz in 2023, following the Justice Department’s decision not to pursue charges against him.
Gaetz has long blamed then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, also a Republican, for the probe. And Gaetz later led the movement to sack McCarthy as speaker.
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Democratic Congressman on the party’s messaging, focus
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