Is UnitedHealth Group Unstoppable?
If the FTC, DoJ and ethical physicians are unable to stop this corporation's ongoing Harm-for-Profit, who will?
Andrew Witty and Dirk McMahon are known as the Minnetonka Mafioso. In some corners they are called the Bandits of Ferndale Road. As these two men and the companies they lead are being bailed out by HHS—American taxpayers—in the wake of the cyber attack against Optum / Change, they continue their vulture investing at the expense of senior citizens, patients and ethical medical professionals.
What, and who, does UnitedHealth Group own? Read this limited list.
UnitedHealth Group owns about 90,000 employed or affiliated doctors, approximately 10% of all physicians in the U.S. Amar Desai, the CEO of UnitedHealth’s Optum Health division said they acquired or hired 20,000 doctors in the past year alone. Desai is one of the reasons for the mismanagement of the cyber attack fall out since February.
So, are UnitedHealth Group, UnitedHealthcare and Optum unstoppable? Attorneys General in some states are pushing back aggressively in an effort to stop Witty and McMahon and the circle of bad actors they employ from continuing to consolidate power and wealth in healthcare while siphoning resources from patient care and patient safety.
As the UnitedHealth Group attempts to stabilize the fall out from the most damaging cyber attack in United States history, Health and Human Services and other federal government agencies have been accelerating payments to physicians and hospitals. In short? The American taxpayer is again bailing out an unethical—and frequently criminal—company that has been allowed by the U.S. Congress to grow too big to be broken up by the FTC.
The Department of Justice started investigating UnitedHealth for anticompetitive and methodical over-billing White Collar Crimes two days before the Optum / Change cyber attack. Now, Oregon regulators will open a review into UnitedHealth Group's proposed acquisition of Amedisys, after a preliminary report found the deal could hurt competition in the state's markets.
The Oregon Health Care Market Oversight Committee published a preliminary report March 14 detailing concerns the proposed acquisition would further consolidate home health and hospice markets in the state.
In June 2023, UnitedHealth Group offered to purchase home health provider Amedisys for $3.3 billion.The proposed deal is facing an antitrust review from the Justice Department.
UnitedHealth Group's health services subsidiary, Optum, owns several home health and hospice providers in Oregon, according to the report. Optum acquired the practices when it bought LHC Group, another home health provider, in 2023. Amedisys also operates multiple practices in Oregon.
If UnitedHealth Group purchases Amedisys, its share of the home health market in Oregon will increase from 6% to 11%, and its share of the hospice market would increase from 4% to 6%. These increases could be higher on the local level, according to the oversight committee.
UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealth Group's commercial health insurance arm, is the second-largest commercial health insurer in the state, and accounts for around 15% of Medicare Advantage members in the state, according to the report. The oversight committee said this vertical consolidation could disadvantage competing providers.
The Justice Department’s antitrust investigation into UnitedHealth Group, includes examining the relationship between its commercial health insurance unit and Optum.
"Given the increase in concentration associated with the transaction, the allegations of anticompetitive behavior levied against UHG, and UHG's position as a vertically integrated (commercial health) insurer/provider in Oregon, further analysis is needed to assess the potential impacts of the proposed transaction on competition in Oregon's healthcare markets," the committee wrote in its report.
In a March 19 regulatory filing, Amedisys said the review from the Oregon Health Authority will be completed within 180 days of Dec. 4.
Who will stop UnitedHealth Group and their White Collar Crime enterprise? American taxpayers are waiting.