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The Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit Thursday challenging UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s $13 billion acquisition of health-technology firm Change Healthcare Inc., arguing the tie-up would unlawfully reduce competition in markets for commercial insurance and the processing of claims. The deal, announced in January 2021, sought to bring a major provider of healthcare clinical and financial services, including the handling of claims, under UnitedHealth’s Optum health-services arm. (Wilde Matthews and Kendall, 2/24)

A spokeswoman for Optum, the UnitedHealth subsidiary, said in a statement that the Justice Department’s “deeply flawed position is based on highly speculative theories that do not reflect the realities of the health care system,” and added that the company would “defend our case vigorously.” A spokeswoman for Change Healthcare said it was still “working toward closing the merger as we comply with our obligations under the merger agreement.” The deal is the latest transaction to run into opposition from the Biden administration, which has made countering corporate consolidation a central part of its economic agenda. President Biden signed an executive order last year to spur competition in different industries. He also appointed Lina Khan, a prominent critic of the tech giants, to lead the Federal Trade Commission and Jonathan Kanter, a lawyer who has represented large companies, as chief of antitrust efforts at the Justice Department.(McCabe, 2/24)

More than 80% of the billions of dollars in federal rental assistance aimed at keeping families in their homes during the pandemic went to low-income tenants, the Treasury Department said Thursday. It also concluded that the largest percentage of tenants receiving pandemic aid were Black followed by households. In the fourth quarter of 2021, Treasury found that more than 40% of tenants getting help were Black and two-thirds of recipients were female-headed households. The data was consistent with what Treasury saw throughout the year. (Casey and Hussein, 2/25)

As the pandemic presses further into its third year, US officials are working on overhauling the nation's strategy, and international officials are for the first time seeing COVAX vaccine supply exceed demand, casting a spotlight on the need to solve rollout problems in Africa. Though White House officials are steeped in crisis talks regarding Russia's attack on Ukraine, efforts are under way to overhaul the nation's COVID-19 strategy, according to ABC News, which said the theme reflected a step-down in the urgency of the threat, now that vaccines, tests, and treatments are more plentiful. (Schnirring, 2/24)

The number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits fell to a 52-year low after another decline in jobless aid applications last week. (Ott, 2/25)

A U.S. District Court judge has granted a request from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to permanently bar Martin Shkreli from serving as an officer or director of any publicly traded company, and fined the infamous “pharma bro” $1.39 million for violating securities laws between 2009 and 2014. The ruling is the latest blow to Shkreli, who gained notoriety seven years ago after his company purchased an old and inexpensive, life-saving medicine and then boosted the price by 4,000% overnight. Last month, yet another federal court judge issued a separate decision ordering Shkreli to pay $64.6 million in profits and banned him for life from the pharmaceutical industry. (Silverman, 2/24)

KHN: Plan To Fix Postal Service Shifts New Retirees To Medicare — Along With Billions In Costs

A congressional effort to fix the nation’s deteriorating mail service may come at the expense of an even bigger and more complicated problem: Medicare solvency. The Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 would help shore up post office finances by ending the unusual and onerous legal requirement to fund 75 years of retirement health benefits in advance. In return, it would require future Postal Service retirees to enroll in Medicare. (McAuliff, 2/25)