The U.S. Justice Department Thursday said it had filed a complaint against three of the country's biggest health insurance companies, Aetna Inc. and affiliates, Elevance Health and Humana, under the False Claims Act.

The action also affects three large insurance broker organizations: eHealth, GoHealth and SelectQuote, it said.

"The United States alleges that from 2016 through at least 2021, the defendant insurers paid hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks to the defendant brokers in exchange for enrollments into the insurers’ Medicare Advantage plans," the Justice Department said in its release.

The DOJ also said that Aetna and Humana conspired with the broker defendants to discriminate against Medicare beneficiaries with disabilities because they perceived them to be less profitable.