The U.S. Department of Justice is awaiting a federal judge’s decision on whether to block UnitedHealth Group’s proposed acquisition of Change Healthcare, and the ruling will send a strong signal to other dealmakers regarding how the courts view access to competitor data as a competitive concern.
Central to the trial is what UnitedHealth — the largest health insurer in the U.S. — would do with the vast amounts of competitor data it would acquire through buying Change, a data analysis service provider for many major managed care insurers, S&P Global reports.
In February, the DOJ filed a lawsuit seeking to block the $13 billion deal announced in January 2021, arguing that because Change’s products are widely used by many healthcare providers, United’s health insurance rivals would not be able to prevent their data from being routed through Change post-transaction. This would allow United to co-opt its rival insurers’ innovations and their competitive strategies while reducing their incentives to pursue those innovations in the first place, the DOJ complaint argues. Read more.
