The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on July 2 their formation of a False Claims Act Working Group. The announcement and the formation of the Working Group...more
7/9/2025
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Drug Pricing ,
Enforcement Priorities ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Medicaid ,
Medical Devices ,
Medicare ,
Trump Administration
The Supreme Court last week granted the stay requested by the Government enjoining the enforcement of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia’s orders involving President Trump’s firing of members of the National...more
5/27/2025
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Article II ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Executive Authority ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Government Agencies ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Injunctions ,
Merits Systems Protection Board ,
NLRB ,
Quasi-Judicial Process ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Removal For-Cause ,
SCOTUS ,
Stays ,
Trump Administration ,
Trump v Wilcox
President Trump issued a Memorandum on April 6 directing the heads of all executive departments and agencies to identify on a fast-track basis (60 days) certain categories of “unlawful and potentially unlawful” regulations...more
4/24/2025
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Chevron Deference ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Executive Orders ,
Healthcare ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Presidential Memorandum ,
Regulatory Agencies ,
Regulatory Reform ,
SCOTUS ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Trump Administration
On March 27, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it was launching an Anticompetitive Regulations Task Force, whose stated purpose is to advocate for the elimination of anticompetitive state and federal laws...more
Back in late January, U.S. District Court Judge Xavier Rodriguez in the Western District of Texas granted summary judgment to Loredo Medical Center (LMC) and a locally-based interventional cardiology group (LMC Cardiology...more
2/24/2025
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Evidence ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Monopolization ,
Section 2 ,
Sherman Act ,
Summary Judgment
In March 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (collectively, Agencies) issued a request for information (RFI) seeking public comment...more
1/27/2025
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Hospitals ,
Mergers ,
Physicians ,
Private Equity ,
Transparency
We previously reported on the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) lawsuit against U.S. Anesthesia Partners (USAP) and the private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (Welsh Carson). In the lawsuit, the FTC alleges that...more
1/23/2025
/ Acquisitions ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Consent Order ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Healthcare ,
Hospitals ,
Mergers ,
Portfolio Companies ,
Private Equity ,
Private Equity Firms ,
Unfair Competition
The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (Agencies) announced on Dec. 11, 2024, that they have withdrawn the Antitrust Guidelines for Collaborations Among Competitors (Guidelines) issued in...more
12/16/2024
/ Collaboration ,
Competition ,
Cybersecurity ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Healthcare ,
Horizontal Merger Guidelines ,
Research and Development ,
Safe Harbors ,
SCOTUS ,
Sherman Act ,
Withdrawal
Last February, New York-based Northwell Health and Connecticut-based Nuvance Health announced that they had entered into an agreement under which the health systems would merge. Thereafter, the New York State Office of...more
In February, 2023, Novant Health and Community Health Systems (CHS) entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement pursuant to which Novant agreed to acquire Lake Norman Regional Medical Center (LNR) and Davis Regional Psychiatric...more
Over the past several months, antitrust enforcement activity in the healthcare provider sector has continued to steadily increase. In Part I of this two-part update, we discussed recent lawsuits involving private equity...more
4/15/2024
/ Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Cartwright Act ,
Competition ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Lack of Authority ,
Popular ,
Request For Information
Over the past several months, antitrust enforcement activity in the healthcare provider sector has continued to steadily increase. In the litigation context, this has involved, in addition to new lawsuits filed by the...more
On March 6, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (“DOJ”), and the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) (the “Agencies”) announced that they were “launching a...more
In prior posts, we discussed the draft, updated merger guidelines that had been issued by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice (sometimes referred to as the “Agencies”) in July of last year. At that...more
A recently decided case out of Connecticut provides a useful examination of how antitrust standing issues may be analyzed in cases involving commercially-insured patients directly suing a health care system alleging economic...more
In a recent post, we discussed the 13 guidelines set forth in the recently issued proposed Hospital Merger Guidelines (“Draft Guidelines”) issued by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice (the “Agencies”)....more
On July 14, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), as anticipated, announced that it was withdrawing two antitrust policy statements related to enforcement in health care markets:
• Statements of Antitrust Enforcement Policy...more
As explained in prior posts, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to enjoin Louisiana Children’s Medical Center (“LCMC”) from continuing to integrate...more
Last Friday, Feb. 3, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) issued a press release in which it announced the withdrawal of what it described as three “outdated” antitrust policy statements related to enforcement in health...more
As reported in our June 13, 2022 blog post, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed complaints on June 2 seeking to block the proposed merger of RWJBarnabas Health and Saint Peter’s Healthcare System in New Jersey and the...more