News Briefs
✦ A pharmacy trade group made a formal request to the Dept. of Justice, asking that the government block UnitedHealth Group’s proposed acquisition of Change Healthcare Inc. “This deal would give UHG a trove of intelligence on its smaller competitors, including thousands of independent pharmacies and their patients. We believe it would use that intelligence to steer patients away from local pharmacies and send them to their own mail-order business,” said National Community Pharmacists Association CEO B. Douglas Hoey, Pharm.D., in a press release. In March, Change Healthcare and UnitedHealth received a request for additional information about their proposed tie-up from the DOJ, signaling that the department would be closely scrutinizing the deal. The American Hospital Association has also asked the DOJ to block the deal. During UnitedHealth’s conference call on Oct. 14 to discuss third-quarter 2021 earnings, President and Chief Operating Officer Dirk McMahon said the firm now expects the transaction to close “in the first part of 2022.”
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Lauren Flynn Kelly Executive Editor, AIS Health, and Managing Editor, Radar on Medicare Advantage
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