Anticompetitive contracting practices have been under antitrust enforcement scrutiny from both state regulators and private parties in recent years. In California, hospital giant Sutter Health faced several high-profile lawsuits for its alleged anticompetitive contracts. While the state case led by the California attorney general settled earlier this year, the federal class action is on its way to the 9th Circuit appeal. HCA Healthcare, a large health system in North Carolina, appear to be the next health system under litigation fire for similar practices. Three separate actions have been filed by …

This month, a long-standing private antitrust lawsuit against Blue Shield/Blue Cross came to a conclusion after a decade of litigation. After a favorable court ruling for the class plaintiffs on a key legal issue, the final settlement agreement received approval in federal court and provides both monetary and injunctive relief that is intended to boost competition in the insurance market. Filed in 2012 by employers and individual policyholders with Blue Cross/Blue Shield (BCBS) coverage, the putative class action alleges that BCBS entities conspired to divvy up insurance markets all over …

As federal agencies including the FTC and DOJ step up antitrust enforcement efforts in response to Biden’s executive order to revamp competition in the healthcare market, more and more healthcare entities are turning to less traditional consolidation that did not previously trigger antitrust scrutiny, such as “cross-market” mergers, which involve providers that do not directly compete in the same geographic market.[1] This month in Litigation and Enforcement Highlights, we take a look at the latest merger review and conditional approval of a proposed cross-market transaction in California, the third of …

It’s been a busy month in healthcare antitrust land, both for federal regulators and private plaintiffs, as we saw an explosion of enforcement actions challenging both proposed mergers and anticompetitive conduct that stemmed from previous mergers. From New Jersey to Utah, large health systems such as HCA are being increasingly scrutinized and coming under fire for garnering and using their market power in anticompetitive ways.   Merger Challenges Fresh from its appeals court win in the Hackensack Meridian and Englewood merger challenge, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is continuing its …

See case page: Sidibe v. Sutter Health   The antitrust action against Northern California hospital giant Sutter Health is a saga that continues to give and capture the attention of antitrust regulators and stakeholders around the country. After Sutter’s landmark settlement with the California attorney general in state court in 2019 and a jury verdict in March 2022 clearing Sutter of anticompetitive allegations in a decade-long federal class action, many thought the Sutter chapter had finally closed, albeit somewhat anti-climatically. Not so fast. In late April, plaintiffs in the federal action …

In the latest healthcare antitrust action, Hackensack Meridian and Englewood Healthcare officially terminated their merger plans after the Third Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a big win for federal regulators in the merger challenge. Last month, after multiple amicus briefs filed by various stakeholders in the appeals court, a three-judge panel affirmed the lower court’s preliminary injunction to block the merger, holding that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) established a prima facie case showing that the proposed merger is likely to substantially lessen competition and that the hospitals’ procompetitive …

See case page: Sidibe v. Sutter Health   After nearly ten years of litigation and a month-long trial in Sidibe v. Sutter Health in the federal district court in San Francisco, a nine-person jury delivered a unanimous verdict finding that Sutter Health did not engage in anticompetitive conduct and did not cause consumers to pay higher prices or premiums as alleged by the class plaintiffs. The jury answered no on two key questions to plaintiffs’ case, that 1) Sutter Health did not use tying practices in its insurer contracts; and 2) …

See case page: Sidibe v. Sutter Health   Northern California hospital giant Sutter Health is again in the spotlight this month as the jury trial began in Sidibe v. Sutter Health in the District Court for the Northern District of California after nearly ten years of litigation. Many may recall the recent antitrust lawsuit led by California attorney general against Sutter Health, UFCW & Employers Benefit Trust (UEBT) v. Sutter Health, which settled in state court on the eve of trial in October 2019. While the settlement sent shockwaves across the …

After months of speculation and opposition from industry groups, the Department of Justice (DOJ), along with attorneys general of New York and Minnesota, filed a lawsuit in federal court in the District of Columbia to block the merger of UnitedHealth and Change Healthcare, just days ahead of the February 27 deadline set for the deal to close. According to the DOJ announcement released on February 24, the lawsuit alleges the proposed $13 billion deal would not only harm competition in commercial health insurance markets, but also the market for technology …

Updated February 23, 2022: The entities withdrew their application and abandoned the proposed merger in the face of federal and state antitrust challenge. A temporary restraining order was granted on February 18 halting merger proceedings pending court ruling on the request for preliminary injunction. Rhode Island’s two largest nonprofit hospital systems, Lifespan and Care New England, will face a challenging road ahead to their proposed merger. On February 17, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted to file a lawsuit to block the proposed merger in court. Separately, Rhode Island Attorney …