Lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice say Aetna Inc. and Humana Inc are trying to derail the government’s antitrust challenge of Aetna’s proposed $37 billion acquisition of Louisville-based Humana.
This comes after lawyers for the companies accused the DOJ with “serious delay and misconduct” last week. The companies requested sanctions, claiming that the government withheld about 1 million documents and that this had “gravely undermined” the companies’ ability to mount a defense against claims that the acquisition would hurt competition.
The National Law Journal reports that the government’s response came Saturday in a court filing, in which it said the DOJ has tried to accommodate the “broad and extremely burdensome discovery demand” from Aetna (NYSE: AET) and Humana (NYSE: HUM) on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The government called the request for sanctions “a transparent attempt to derail the United States’ merger challenge before the district court ever hears from a single witness or reviews any evidence,” the law journal reported.
At issue is how much market share the combined company would control in Medicare Advantage, a type of Medicare plan offered by a private insurer. A court date is set for Dec. 5, 2016, and the judge says a decision isn’t likely until mid-January 2017 — past the companies’ end-of-year deadline to close the deal.
HENRY KOTULA 