Legal
UnitedHealth Tries to Stop Lawsuits From Mom-And-Pop Drugstores
- The dispute is over more than $100 million in drug payments
- Pharmacies say Optum Rx unit has underpaid them for years
Photographer: Bill Oxford/iStockphoto/Getty Images
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Hundreds of small, independent drugstores are accusing UnitedHealth Group Inc. of short-changing them by more than $100 million, and the health-care giant is trying to head off a lawsuit before it goes to court.
UnitedHealth’s Optum Rx unit filed more than 200 legal cases this week in federal court in California to force the cases into individual arbitration processes, rather than allow a joint lawsuit to go forward, according to legal filings.