Aetna, Humana and Elevance Health Accused of Medicare Kickbacks and Bias

In a complaint filed on May 1, 2025, the Department of Justice accused insurance providers Aetna, Humana and Elevance Health of engaging in a large kickback scheme with insurance brokers eHealth, GoHealth, and SelectQuote between 2016 and 2021. According to the complaint, the brokers steered customers seeking assistance in selecting a Medicare Advantage plan to Aetna, Humana and Elevance Health in exchange for hundreds of millions of Dollars in kickbacks through payments for marketing, sponsorships and other similar services. Further, the complaint alleges that Aetna and Humana conspired with the insurance brokers to discriminate against Medicare beneficiaries with disabilities, which they perceived to be less profitable, by steering those patients to choose Medicare Advantage plans through other insurers. According to the Department of Justice, Aetna and Humana threatened that they would withhold kickbacks to these brokers to encourage them to enroll fewer beneficiaries with disabilities in their plans. The lawsuit is a qui tam action under the False Claims Act, which permits a private individual to bring a claim in the event of government fraud and allows the individual to collect a portion of the damages the government collects if it prevails in the lawsuit.

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