Frequently Asked Questions

The four class-action lawsuits filed in April of 2020 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California allege that United and Cigna conspired with Claritev’s subsidiary, Viant, Inc., to underpay out-of-network behavioral health claims.

The two provider class-action lawsuits have been dismissed, including the RICO claims. With regard to the two patient purported class-actions, the court has not made any determination on the merits. The court is required to assume the truth of plaintiffs’ allegations and found they were sufficient to proceed at the pleadings stage. Claritev vigorously contests the allegations that were not dismissed and looks forward to presenting the evidence in court.

In separate lawsuits brought by 9 California behavioral health facilities against United and Claritev represented by the same plaintiff’s counsel and asserting some similar claims as the purported patient class-actions, a California federal court recently entered summary judgment in favor of Claritev dismissing all claims with prejudice. The lawsuits brought by the 9 California behavioral health providers was the first behavioral health case to reach the summary judgment stage and the federal court rejected all plaintiffs’ claims, including the claim that Claritev was an ERISA fiduciary.

No, Claritev is not a SPAC. Claritev is an established company with a 40-year history that has seen significant growth over such period. For example, second quarter 2022 revenues were reported at $290.1 million, an increase of 5.0% over Q2 2021 revenues.

The reason Claritev is sometimes confused with a SPAC is because Churchill Capital Corp III, which was a SPAC, merged with Claritev in October of 2020. As a result, Churchill Capital Corp III ceased to be a SPAC in what’s sometimes referred to as a de-SPAC merger.

Once the merger was consummated and the transactions were complete, Churchill Capital Corp III, which was the surviving entity from the merger, changed its name to Claritev Corporation and The New York Stock Exchange ticker symbols for its Class A common stock and warrants to “MPLN” and “MPLN.WS”, respectively.

Founded initially in 1980 as a New York-based hospital network, Claritev has evolved both organically and through acquisition into a national organization offering three categories of services:

1. Analytics-Based Services: data-driven algorithms which detect claims over-charges and either negotiate or recommend fair reimbursement using a variety of data sources and pricing algorithms
2. Network-Based Services: contracted discounts with healthcare providers to form one of the largest independent preferred provider organizations (“PPO”) in the United States with over 1.2 million under contract, as well as outsourced network development and/or management services
3. Payment and Revenue Integrity Services: data, technology, and clinical expertise deployed to identify and remove improper and unnecessary charges before or after claims are paid, or to identify and help restore and preserve underpaid premium dollars

Today, Claritev is a leading value-added healthcare cost management firm that provides data analytics and technology-enabled, end-to-end cost management solutions to the U.S. healthcare industry. Claritev offers payors a single electronic gateway to a highly integrated and comprehensive set of services to reduce the medical cost burden on healthcare payors and patients while fostering efficient payment to the providers.

SPACs are sometimes referred to as “blank check companies” because they’re new corporations without business operations that are taken public to raise capital, which capital will then be used to acquire a private company. This results in the acquired private company becoming a public company without going through the traditional initial public offering (IPO) process.

SPACs in healthcare are not uncommon. Healthcare SPACs are specific to the healthcare and health tech space.
Capital Forum + Claritev

The Claritev Corp. Stockholders Litigation is a class action lawsuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery filed by two stockholders of Churchill Capital Corp III. These stockholders allege that the Churchill Capital Corp III fiduciaries failed to disclose material information regarding the acquisition of Claritev that may have impacted stockholders’ decisions on exercising their redemption rights in the de-SPAC transaction.

While the Court has dismissed Claritev from this lawsuit, Claritev has agreed to indemnify certain other defendants that have not been dismissed. Claritev believes the allegations against the remaining defendants are meritless and is cooperating with them as they present a vigorous defense. We do not expect this litigation to have any effect on Claritev’s relationships with payors or network providers.

Although we do not believe the Claritev Corp. Stockholders Litigation class action lawsuit has any merit, the resolution of the lawsuit may impact current or potential stockholders of Claritev if Claritev is required to pay damages to Churchill Capital Corp III stockholders who chose not to redeem their Churchill shares for a guaranteed $10.04 per share in the de-SPAC transaction.

In short, we do not believe it will. We do not believe the Claritev Corp. Stockholders Litigation has any merit, and, consequently, we do not believe it will impact operations. Further, we do not expect that customers or their members will experience any disruption in services from Claritev, including protection from many out-of-network charges.

Team Health, through its affiliated staffing companies, has brought multiple lawsuits against UnitedHealthcare and its affiliates. In certain of those lawsuits, Team Health has also sued Claritev, claiming that Claritev conspired with UnitedHealthcare to reduce reimbursement for non-network claims. Claritev is vigorously defending these claims, which Claritev believes are completely without merit.  Thus far, Team Health has not been successful against Claritev in any lawsuit and, in three lawsuits, the claims against Claritev were dismissed with prejudice.

Following the merger of Churchill Capital Corp III and Claritev in October of 2020, Claritev Corporation became the ultimate parent company of the various entities that carry out Claritev’s operations. Claritev Corporation is publicly-traded and owned by its stockholders and, therefore, does not have a parent company.

In November 2020, a known short seller, Muddy Waters Research LLC, issued a report asserting one of Claritev’s largest customers, UnitedHealthcare, was ending its relationship. These accusations were baseless and Claritev has maintained all of its largest clients.

Attorneys representing Verity Health, a now bankrupt healthcare system in California, claim Claritev cost management solutions contributed to underpayments to Verity for out-of-network services, causing their bankruptcy. Claritev denies all allegations levied by Verity against its business and its clients, and is working with its clients to defend against these baseless claims.