Maryland Sues UnitedHealth Group and Optum for Medicaid Program Defrauding

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown has filed a lawsuit against UnitedHealth Group and Optum, Inc. for allegedly defrauding the Maryland Medicaid Program.

The suit claims that the companies supplied a defective computer system intended to manage the state's behavioral health program.

The system, worth $126.9 million, was designed to process and pay medical providers for services such as mental health care and substance abuse treatment.

However, officials reported that Optum swapped out its own software with an inadequately-tested platform, which crashed immediately and failed to distinguish between legitimate and 'frivolous' claims.