UnitedHealth Group / Change Healthcare Antitrust & RICO Class Action

UnitedHealth Group — the nation's largest health insurer and parent company of Optum — is accused in this sweeping antitrust and RICO class action of systematically abusing its dominant market position to undermine independent medical practices and consolidate control over the U.S. healthcare system. Plaintiffs, who include thousands of independent physicians and medical groups, allege that UnitedHealth used its combined insurance and care delivery operations to steer patients away from independent providers toward Optum-owned clinics and physician groups, denied or delayed reimbursements to competitors, and engaged in a coordinated scheme to drive independent practices out of business or force them to be acquired by Optum — which now employs more than 90,000 physicians nationwide.

The lawsuit invokes the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act alongside federal antitrust statutes, arguing that UnitedHealth's vertical integration of insurance and care delivery created an illegal self-dealing ecosystem that harms both providers and patients. The case was filed in the wake of UnitedHealth's catastrophic February 2024 Change Healthcare cyberattack, which disrupted claims processing for thousands of providers and raised new scrutiny of the company's unprecedented market concentration. Antitrust regulators and Congress have also opened parallel investigations into UnitedHealth's consolidation practices, making this one of the most significant healthcare antitrust actions in decades.