The U.S. Department of Justice accused three of the nation's largest health insurers of paying hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks to brokers in exchange for steering patients into the insurers' Medicare Advantage plans.

The Justice Department has sued three of the largest Medicare Advantage insurers and three dominant insurance brokerages, alleging a kickbacks scheme.

The DOJ alleges in its complaint that CVS Health-unit Aetna, Elevance Health and Humana paid the kickbacks to brokers eHealth, GoHealth and SelectQuote in exchange for enrollments into the insurers’ Medicare Advantage plans.