Antitrust and Fraud Cases Implications for Health Care

Antitrust and Fraud Cases Implications for Health Care
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Antitrust and Fraud Cases Implications for Health Care
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a civil case to stop UnitedHealth Group’s deal to acquire Change Healthcare. This is an example of an antitrust case. The filed complaint alleges that the $5 billion debt and $8 billion cash deal would undermine competition within commercial medical insurance markets and in the industry for crucial technology utilized by medical insurers to process medical insurance claims as well as mitigate healthcare costs (The United States Department of Justice, 2022). Fraud and violations of antitrust policy undermine the quality of health care. Antitrust policies protect competition in the health care industry. Violating antitrust policy undermines open and free competition, thus increasing health care costs and deteriorating the quality of care. In the open competitive industry, each rival healthcare organization attempts to attract clients by reducing its prices and improving the quality of its services. Lack of competition in health insurance would stifle innovation, undermining the patient capacity to access better coverage, thus providing an impetus for delivering substandard care. Competition benefits consumers by ensuring lower prices and better services and prod...