Hogan Lovells notches antitrust trial win, helps defeat DOJ challenge to UnitedHealth–Change Healthcare merger

On September 19, a federal judge for the District of Columbia ruled that UnitedHealth Group’s acquisition of Change Healthcare could move forward, paving the way for the companies to simplify the clinical, administrative, and payment processes in the U.S. healthcare system. The order by Judge Carl Nichols confirmed Change Healthcare’s already announced plans to divest its ClaimsXten claims editing solution to resolve asserted antitrust concerns with the transaction.

The Hogan Lovells team represented UnitedHealth Group from the beginning of DOJ’s investigation of the transaction in early 2021 through trial in August 2022. The case is  Hogan Lovells’ second merger trial win since 2020, when the antitrust team defeated the FTC’s challenge to Thomas Jefferson University’s merger with Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, the first FTC loss in a hospital merger case in decades.

The Hogan Lovells antitrust team was led by partner Justin Bernick and included partners Chuck Loughlin and Logan Breed; counsel Bob Leibenluft and Ashley M. Howlett; associates John Hamilton, Molly Pallman, Jamie Lee, Chris Fitzpatrick, Eric Sega, Meschelle Noble, Olga Fleysh, Jonathan Elsasser, Erin Frake, Danny Mader, Joseph Spoerl, and Russell Welch; attorneys Soyoun Yasuda and John Romney; and paralegals James Dalcero and Maxwell Hamilton.