While M&A activity has slowed in the tail end of the first quarter of 2025, including in healthcare, there have been several noteworthy developments in the antitrust space in the first 100 days of the Trump Administration. ...more
As many as 19 states maintain the ability to exercise local control over hospital competition by offering industry participants wishing to merge a certificate of public advantage (COPA)....more
As explained in prior posts, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) filed suit in April of this year in Federal District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to enjoin Louisiana Children’s Medical Center (“LCMC”) from...more
Last Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) took the step of filing suit in federal court asserting that parties to a hospital acquisition who had obtained a Certificate of Public Advantage (“COPA”) from their state...more
In the first part of this article, we discussed the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) recently issued staff policy paper strongly urging states to avoid using Certificates of Public Advantage (“COPA”) which seek to immunize...more
Background- Many states have enacted Certificate of Public Advantage (“COPA”) laws which seek to permit hospital mergers that might otherwise have been challenged by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and found to violate...more
The FTC released a policy paper and fact sheet highlighting the negative impact Certificates of Public Advantage (COPAs)— state laws enacted to shield hospital mergers from federal antitrust enforcement in favor of regulatory...more
We previously reported on several cases involving successful antitrust challenges to proposed hospital mergers involving Hackensack Meridian Health System and Englewood Hospital in Bergen County New Jersey; RWJ Barnabas...more