Interview Price fixing – an agreement between competitors to set price levels – has been illegal under the US Sherman Antitrust Act since 1890. B

Price-fixing-as-a-service: The claim against healthcare cost-cruncher MultiPlan

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2025-01-16 12:30:06

Interview Price fixing – an agreement between competitors to set price levels – has been illegal under the US Sherman Antitrust Act since 1890.

But, allegedly, it's alive and well among real estate and healthcare companies, thanks in part to the ease with which software algorithms support collusion as a service.

RealPage, a Texas-based maker of software that sets rents for property managers, and six large landlord clients, are currently being sued by the US Department of Justice for fixing rent prices to keep them high, using non-public data from its clients, at the expense of renters.

MultiPlan, a New York-based provider of "cost-containment solutions" for health insurance companies like Aetna, Cigna, and United Healthcare, is accused of fixing healthcare reimbursement costs – fees paid by insurance companies to doctors and hospitals – to keep payments low, to the detriment of doctors and patients. MultiPlan does a lot of things, including payment and data analytics services for insurers.

Specifically, as detailed [PDF] in multidistrict litigation against the company, MultiPlan is alleged to be operating a "cartel" with healthcare insurance companies to set the price for "out-of-network" healthcare services.