UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s $3.29 billion takeover of Amedisys Inc. will undergo an in-depth antitrust review by the Department of Justice, according to a filing from Amedisys.
The home-health company disclosed in a regulatory filing that it received a so-called second request seeking additional information on the deal from the antitrust agency on Aug. 4. Such a request is expected in major deals and lengthens the antitrust review by months or years, depending on the complexity of the transaction.
Amedisys and UnitedHealth announced a deal in June, after Amedisys scrapped a merger with Option Care Health Inc. Amedisys shares slipped 0.9% in extended trading on Thursday.
Health insurance companies have been diversifying into other services, including direct care delivery businesses, for years. UnitedHealth pioneered the strategy and some of its rivals are now replicating it. The health-care giant’s widening reach has attracted scrutiny from antitrust regulators, with the Department of Justice unsuccessfully challenging a different deal last year.
UnitedHealth expressed interest in Amedisys as far back as October 2021, according to an earlier filing by Amedisys disclosing background on the transaction. At the time, UnitedHealth made a preliminary offer at a 28% premium, equivalent to about $200 per share. It later expressed interest at a 48% premium to Amedisys’s share price on January 7, 2022, according to the filing, or roughly $220. The board didn’t pursue the deal at the time.
Amedisys’s share price declined since that period. The parties reached a deal in June at $101 per share.
Amedisys has 522 care centers in 37 states and serves more than 455,000 patients a year, with about three-fourths of the company’s revenue coming from Medicare. UnitedHealth’s insurance subsidiary, UnitedHealthcare, is the largest seller of private Medicare Advantage health plans.
Its Optum businesses, which include a pharmacy benefits manager, health-care providers, and data and consulting services, make up about half the company’s operating profit.
Earlier this year, UnitedHealth acquired LHC Group, which has about 30,000 employees who provide more than 12 million annual in-home patient-focused interventions.