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Maryland Sues UnitedHealth and Optum Over Allegedly Defective Medicaid System
Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown has filed a lawsuit against UnitedHealth Group and its subsidiary Optum, alleging that their Medicaid system was defective.
The state contracted with Optum for $126.9 million to operate the Medicaid program's Administrative Services Organization from 2019 through 2024.
The system, used for processing and paying providers for behavioral health services, crashed on its first day and allegedly denied legitimate claims, made incorrect payments, and failed to prevent millions of dollars in fraud.
The Maryland Department of Health took the system offline for eight months in 2020 and relied on estimated payments to providers.