Anti-Steering or Anti-Tiering
[Sutter Case Watch] A Huge Deal: Settlement Terms of Sutter Health Antitrust Case Will Promote Transparency and Competition in California Provider Markets
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor January 15, 2020
See UFCW & Employers Benefit Trust v. Sutter Health case page. The high-profile antitrust case against Sutter Health settled on the eve of trial in October 2019, when the Northern California hospital giant reached a preliminary settlement agreement with the California Attorney General’s office and class action plaintiffs after five years of litigation. The terms of the settlement were released late December, which include both monetary compensation for the private plaintiffs and injunctions against Sutter’s conduct that will restore competition and promote transparency in the provider market. In this …
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[Sutter Case Watch] BREAKING: Settlement Terms Released for Landmark Antitrust Case against Sutter Health
Sammy Chang, Health Policy Researcher December 20, 2019
See UFCW & Employers Benefit Trust v. Sutter Health case page. Today, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced the settlement terms for the landmark antitrust case, UFCW & Employers Benefit Trust v. Sutter Health. Sutter Health was alleged to engage in anticompetitive behavior by requiring “all or nothing” contracts, preventing insurance companies from providing tiered health plans, setting extremely high out-of-network rates, and restricting price transparency of provider cost information and rates. As Source Executive Editor Jaime King explains in a Tradeoffs episode, The Train Has Left the Station, …
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[In the Press] Interview Quoted in San Francisco Chronicle Article “Antitrust case against Sutter Health due to begin this week”
Jaime S. King, Executive Editor October 8, 2019
Jaime King was quoted in the 10/8/2019 San Francisco Chronicle article “Antitrust case against Sutter Health due to begin this week”.
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[Case Watch] UCFW & Employers Benefit Trust v. Sutter Health] A Look at the Legal Arguments Through the Lens of the Court’s Denial of Sutter’s Motions for Summary Judgment
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor October 7, 2019
See UFCW & Employers Benefit Trust v. Sutter Health case page. As part of the Case Watch series for the landmark antitrust suit against Sutter Health, this post takes a look back at the Superior Court of San Francisco’s orders from March and June 2019, denying Sutter’s motions for summary judgment, which set the stage for the jury trial, set to begin on Thursday, October 10, 2019. As a preview of the legal arguments we will see at trial, we dissect each of the four causes of action brought against Sutter …
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[In the Press] Interview Quoted in New York Times Article “High Medical Bills Are at Center of Hospital Group’s Trial”
Jaime S. King, Executive Editor October 3, 2019
Jaime King was quoted in the 10/3/2019 New York Times article High Medical Bills Are at Center of Hospital Group’s Trial: Jaime King, a law professor at U.C. Hastings College of the Law, described the approach as “a landmark case.” Rather than trying to block a merger over antitrust concerns, the Sutter trial is an attempt to attack the practices of a powerful hospital system. “The Sutter case is challenging a whole system of behavior,” she said.
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[In the Press] Interview Quoted in Bloomberg Law Article “Sutter Antitrust Class Action Could Upend Industry Consolidation”
Jaime S. King, Executive Editor September 20, 2019
Jaime King was quoted in the 9/20/2019 Bloomberg Law article “Sutter Antitrust Class Action Could Upend Industry Consolidation”: Health-care costs are one of the most important concerns in the U.S., said Jaime King, associate dean of the University of California Hastings School of Law and director of the Concentration on Law and Health Sciences. “I know that attorneys general in other states are paying very close attention to what’s happening because concentration is not something that is just happening in California—it’s happening all over the country. If successful we will …
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The Lower Health Care Costs Act: A Bipartisan Federal Effort to Improve Competition in Healthcare Markets
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher June 21, 2019
The Lower Health Care Costs Act, released in May 2019 by Senators Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray, addresses many inefficiencies in healthcare markets and has the potential to both increase competition and lower costs for healthcare services. The 195-page draft federal bill, also known as the Alexander-Murray Bill (S 1895), contains more than three dozen provisions designed to address health care costs. The bill is divided into five titles: 1) Ending Surprise Medical Bills, 2) Reducing the Prices of Prescription Drugs, 3) Improving Transparency in Health Care, 4) Improving Public …
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Who’s Driving Healthcare Prices: A Look at Anticompetitive Conduct of Various Players in the Healthcare Market
Source Fellow and Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor April 9, 2019
By: Megan O’Leary, Student Fellow and Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor On Thursday, April 4, The Source attended the “Antitrust in the New Millennium Symposium” hosted by UC Hastings College of the Law. This blog focuses on the session “New Antitrust and Healthcare”, moderated by The Source Board member and UC Hastings Professor Thomas Greaney, and featuring the panel of, notably all women, UC Hastings Professor Robin Feldman, California Senior Assistant Attorney General Kathleen Foote, and American Antitrust Institute (AAI) President Diana L. Moss. What drives rising healthcare prices? Perhaps it stems …
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Litigation and Enforcement Highlights – December 2018
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor December 17, 2018
November brought both good and bad news to the realm of healthcare competition. In one of the biggest developments of the year in antitrust enforcement, the Justice Department successfully settled with Atrium Health to prohibit its anti-steering practice in North Carolina. Later in the month, despite anticompetitive concerns and the potential resulting impact on healthcare prices, key states approved three mega mergers, albeit with conditions. Major North Carolina Hospital System Settles Anti-Steering Suit with DOJ, Encourages Antitrust Enforcement Efforts In an ongoing anti-steering case in North Carolina,[1] the state’s …
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The Source Roundup: September 2018 Edition
Tiffany Wang, Student Fellow September 4, 2018
Happy September! We hope you’ve enjoyed the Labor Day weekend and ready for the fall! In this edition of The Source Roundup, we cover five academic articles and reports from July and August. This month we look at (1) monopoly in the ACA marketplace; (2) the recent Ohio v. American Express U.S. Supreme Court decision; and a trio of articles that examine accountable care organizations in terms of (3) ACO growth in 2018; (4) ACO effectiveness in reducing health care costs; and (5) the proposed changes to ACOs in the …
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