On March 14, 2019, a California state court denied Sutter Health’s motion for summary judgment on claims of alleged price tampering and combination to monopolize under California’s Cartwright Act, the state’s principal...more
3/28/2019
/ Anticompetitive Behavior ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Cartwright Act ,
Case Consolidation ,
Healthcare Costs ,
Hospitals ,
Intent ,
Monopolization ,
Motion for Summary Judgment ,
Price-Fixing ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Restraint of Trade ,
Self-Insured Health Plans ,
Sherman Act ,
State Attorneys General ,
Vertical Restraints
Last month the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (the “DOJ”) announced a proposed settlement in its anti-steering case against Atrium Health (formerly known as Carolinas HealthCare System) (“Atrium”). US v. The...more
A private home health care agency’s attempted monopolization suit against a dominant public hospital system and its home health care agency will move forward following a federal district court’s denial of the defendant...more
3/15/2018
/ Anti-Steering Rules ,
Anticompetitive Behavior ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Competition ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Home Health Care ,
Hospitals ,
Judgment on the Pleadings ,
Medicare ,
Monopolization ,
Patient Referrals
On the eve of trial, and after years of litigation (including an appeal to the Sixth Circuit), all claims by Dayton, Ohio hospital The Medical Center at Elizabeth Place (“MCEP”) against Premier Health Partners (“Premier”)...more
8/17/2017
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Appeals ,
Boycotts ,
Dismissal With Prejudice ,
Health Care Providers ,
Hospitals ,
Joint Venture ,
Per Se Rule ,
Rule-of-Reason Analysis ,
Sherman Act ,
Standard of Review ,
Vertical Restraints
In an opinion written by Judge Posner, the Seventh Circuit on Friday gave its stamp of approval to a “must-have” hospital’s bargaining to exclude competitors from certain narrow-network payor contracts in and around Peoria,...more
6/12/2017
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Appeals ,
Contract Terms ,
Exclusive Dealing Agreements ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance ,
Hospitals ,
Monopolization ,
Patients ,
Payor Contracts ,
Preferred Hospital Networks Arrangement ,
Richard Posner ,
Summary Judgment
A federal district court denied summary judgment motions brought by both sides in the government’s antitrust suit against a Michigan hospital alleging an agreement not to compete in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act....more
6/7/2017
/ Advertising ,
Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Attorney General ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Hospitals ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
ProMedica ,
Sherman Act ,
Summary Judgment
On March 30, 2017, in a closely watched case, a federal district court denied the Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings filed by Carolinas Healthcare against the DOJ Antitrust Division and State of North Carolina’s Complaint...more
4/3/2017
/ Anti-Steering Rules ,
Anticompetitive Behavior ,
Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Contract Terms ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Health Insurance ,
Hospitals ,
Judgment on the Pleadings ,
Motion for Judgment ,
Pleadings ,
Restraint of Trade
After fending off a motion for judgment on the pleadings in March 2015, a small hospital in Peoria, Illinois lost on summary judgment in its $300 million antitrust suit alleging illegal exclusive dealing and attempted...more
10/5/2016
/ Antitrust Litigation ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Blue Cross ,
Blue Shield ,
Exclusive Dealing Agreements ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance ,
Healthcare ,
Hospitals ,
Monopolization ,
Summary Judgment
The Third Circuit reminds, “[i]n antitrust suits, definitions matter.” Last week, in applying that maxim, the court affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a suit filed by a hospital against a competing hospital and physician...more
The Third Circuit granted on Tuesday the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) request for an injunction pending appeal of the proposed merger between Penn State Hershey Medical Center and Pinnacle Health System. The injunction...more
Two West Virginia hospital systems settled a lawsuit filed yesterday by the Department of Justice (“DOJ” or “Department”) alleging that they agreed to allocate territories for marketing health care services in violation of...more
The antitrust suit against Willis Knighton Medical Center will continue following the denial of its motion to dismiss. BRFHH Shreveport v. Willis Knighton Med. Ctr., case number 5:15-cv-02057 (W.D. La. Mar. 31, 2016). The...more
The Sixth Circuit on Tuesday voted 2 to 1 to reverse a district court’s grant of summary judgment under which a defendant hospital network had been found to be a single entity incapable of conspiring with itself in an...more
Last week the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “Commission”) issued an administrative complaint challenging the merger of two West Virginia hospitals that had earlier been cleared by the state’s Attorney General (“W.V. AG”)...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently submitted comments to Virginia and Tennessee regarding proposed laws in each state relating to Cooperative Agreements between hospitals and the granting of Certificates of Public...more
The waves of change affecting health care providers include reimbursement and funding developments, the impact of the Affordable Care Act, technological and medical advances, provider network design transformations imposed by...more
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) co-hosted the second installment of their public workshop series, “Examining Health Care Competition.” Complementing last year’s focus on...more
In a much anticipated appellate health care antitrust decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a district court’s finding that a consummated hospital-physician group merger violated Section 7...more
On February 19, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that state-action immunity does not protect a state-created hospital authority from antitrust scrutiny over a proposed hospital merger where the anticompetitive...more
On January 16, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) announced that it does not presently intend to challenge the Greater New York Hospital Association’s (“GNYHA”) proposed gainsharing program. The program...more