![Charlie Baker at basketball game](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.sportico.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/GettyImages-2139232120-e1720640507294.jpg?w=1280&h=721&crop=1)
NCAA president Charlie Baker may be about to have another antitrust lawsuit on his hands—but this one has nothing to do with college sports.
On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported the Federal Trade Commission is preparing to sue UnitedHealth Group and the corporate owners of two other pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)—Cigna and CVS Health—over alleged price-fixing related to the sale of insulin and other drugs.
In November, the NCAA president and former Massachusetts governor was named to UnitedHealth Group’s 10-member board of directors, with board chairman Stephen J. Hemsley touting Baker’s “leadership and deep health care experience” prior to his taking over the NCAA. Before becoming governor, Baker was CEO of a nonprofit health benefits company, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.
United is the largest health insurer in the United States, earning about $281.4 billion in revenue last year. In 2015 it acquired the PBM, OptumRX, which now fills about 22% of prescriptions in U.S.
“UnitedHealth Group has unique capabilities to improve health care outcomes, lower costs and make the experience better for both patients and providers,” Baker said in a statement at the time of his board appointment.
However, that does not appear to be what the federal regulators have concluded, at least when it comes to United’s Optum Health subsidiary, which alone reported revenue of $95.3 billion in 2023. Earlier this week, the FTC released an interim staff report detailing its findings about how the nation’s largest PBMs are “inflating drug costs and squeezing main street pharmacies.”
UnitedHealth Group is the only publicly known board position that Baker currently holds. Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show that Baker has received 469 deferred shares of United stock—worth around $233,000—as compensation for his service on the company’s board.
Over the last two years, United’s activities have been subject to increasing federal and Congressional scrutiny.
In April, the company revealed that cyber hackers had infiltrated its Change Healthcare subsidiary, and stolen a “substantial proportion” of health and personal data of its clientsThe following month, at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee, chairman Ron Wyden mocked United for having previously cited Baker when asked who of its board had cybersecurity experience.
“Mr. Baker is certainly an expert on basketball, but UHG needs an actual cybersecurity expert on its board,” Wyden said.
However, Baker does have some potentially relevant experience on dealing with price-fixing allegations, having recently negotiated a settlement to three antitrust lawsuits against the NCAA. Baker did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to an NCAA spokesperson.
While he was NCAA president, Baker’s predecessor Mark Emmert simultaneously served on the boards of Omnicare Inc., a pharmacy services provider; timberland company Weyerhaeuser; and global logistics firm Expeditors International of Washington.