UnitedHealth Group waives deadlines to complete $3.3B home health acquisition

UnitedHealth Group has filed for more time to complete a $3.3 billion deal to buy Amedisys, a home health care and hospice company, after the companies agreed to waive deadlines in the face of antitrust scrutiny.

The U.S. Department of Justice and several states last month sued to block the deal, alleging the merger would give the Minnetonka-based health care conglomerate a commanding stake in many areas.

“UnitedHealth’s acquisition of Amedisys would ensure that UnitedHealth, not competition, would determine outcomes for patients in home health and hospice and for the nurses that provide services in hundreds of local markets across the country,” the lawsuit said. “This merger would also further UnitedHealth’s standing as the dominant force in nearly every corner of the American health care system.”

The Amedisys deal would give the nation’s largest health insurer control of two of the country’s three largest home health companies after UnitedHealth paid $5.4 billion for LHC Group in 2022. Medicare pays for a great deal of home health and palliative care.

Given the dispersed ownership of home health and hospice companies, UnitedHealth argues it would operate “just a fraction of all home health and hospice care centers nationally.”

UnitedHealth and Amedisis agreed to waive two deadlines to complete the deal, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission document filed Friday. One would have given 10 days after a court ruling to complete the deal; the other gave the companies until the end of 2025.

UnitedHealth will now have to pay $275 million if the company backs out of the deal, a $25 million increase, and that figure could rise to $325 million.