Antitrust Enforcement
St. Luke’s Request for Rehearing Denied
Anne Marie Helm, Managing Editor April 7, 2015
UPDATE: April 21, 2015 The Ninth Circuit announced on April 21 that St. Luke’s petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc were being denied after a vote of the judges. It remains to be seen whether the case will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. UPDATE, April 7, 2015 Late last month, St. Luke’s and Saltzer filed a combined petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc with the Ninth Circuit. The providers took issue with the appellate court’s handling of the efficiencies defense, geographic markets analysis, and what they call “the …
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Illinois District Court Accepts Narrow Product Market with No Government Payers
Anne Marie Helm, Managing Editor April 3, 2015
The TakeAway On March 25, 2015, a federal district court in Illinois denied dominant provider OSF Healthcare System’s motion for judgment on the pleadings (reviewed under same standard as a motion to dismiss) in an antitrust suit filed against OSF by rival Methodist Health Services Corporation. The upshot of the opinion is that the court allowed Methodist to proceed with a product market definition that includes medical services sold to commercial health insurers, but expressly excludes the same services sold to government payers. This case importantly varies from some recent precedent …
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Update: Prime Backs out of Daughters Hospital Deal Due to California AG’s “Onerous” Conditions
Jaime S. King, Executive Editor and Anne Marie Helm March 10, 2015
Update (March 10, 2015): Today Prime announced that it would not go forward with its proposed acquisition of six Daughters of Charity hospitals. Prime cited the California Attorney General’s onerous conditions as its reason for backing out of the deal. Those conditions, which certainly tested Prime’s commitment to the type of acquisition and future plans for the charity hospitals that the AG’s office envisioned, are detailed below in our original post on this potential sale. The remaining challenge is for Daughters, whose future is uncertain without a purchaser to turn …
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The FTC is on a Roll with its Second Appellate Victory in Two Weeks
Anne Marie Helm, Managing Editor February 26, 2015
The FTC appears to be on a roll. On February 25, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Fourth Circuit’s upholding of the Commission’s administrative ruling that the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners (“Board”) had illegally restrained trade under the FTC Act by forcing nondentists to cease offering teeth whitening services in that state. The underlying facts were that nondentists had been offering teeth whitening services for lower prices than were licensed dentists. In response to complaints from dentists, the Board took action to exclude nondentists from the …
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Updated Jan. 30: In the World of Healthcare Mergers, All Eyes Should be on Massachusetts
Jaime S. King, Executive Editor January 30, 2015
UPDATE (Jan. 30, 2015): Today, in a 48-page decision, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Sanders declined to enter the consent judgment reflecting the deal negotiated between former Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley and Partners Healthcare, the Boston Globe reported today. The decision comes three days after new Attorney General filed a Notice of her office’s position on the deal, at the request of the court. That Notice raised concerns about terms of the deal, and indicated that if the court rejected the consent judgment, the A.G.’s office would void its agreement with Partners …
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December Articles & Reports Roundup
Jaime S. King, Executive Editor January 3, 2015
Happy New Year! The December Roundup is here to help you ease into work and make sure you did not miss anything during all the holiday festivities! We will first highlight a few articles on the role of competition and antitrust enforcement in controlling healthcare costs. If you read one article this month, have it be this one. In the December 11th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Edith Ramirez, Chair of the Federal Trade Commission, published Antitrust Enforcement in Health Care—Controlling Costs, Improving Quality. In this article, …
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FTC v. St. Luke’s Appeal: Video & Analysis
Anne Marie Helm, Managing Editor November 28, 2014
Last month, a three-judge Ninth Circuit panel in Portland heard arguments in the appeal of Saint Alphonsus Medical Center, et al v. St. Luke’s Health System, LTD, et al. Watch the video of the hearing. The Ninth Circuit In the arguments, counsel for the appellants focused on the benefits that the acquisition, which was stayed pending appeal, would bring to the community. Jack Beirig of Sidley Austin, who argued the case for St. Luke’s, opened by claiming that the district court had not considered the deals’ potential benefits, and assertion contested by the panel, …
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Academic Articles and Reports Roundup July 2014
Jaime S. King, Executive Editor August 5, 2014
July was a slower month in terms of volume of reports and articles being published, but nonetheless, some very important pieces came out. So check them out! Shaudi Bazzaz and Suzanne Delbanco for Catalyst for Payment Reform issued their latest report – State Policies on Provider Market Power. Members of the Source team contributed research and legal analysis to the development of this report. The report provides information on state legislation, regulation and other efforts to promote competition in healthcare for all fifty states. The report also provides information on …
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The Source Looks at Federal Court’s Dismissal of Antitrust Class Action Against Sutter
Anne Marie Helm, Managing Editor July 1, 2014
The Source has been following Sidibe v. Sutter Health, a putative class action filed in federal court in San Francisco in September 2012, wondering whether it would affect the way hospitals contract with health plans in California and elsewhere. The plaintiffs in the case alleged that Sutter used provisions in its contracts with health plans to create healthcare monopolies and charge above-market prices, which were passed on by the plans to consumers. Seven months after the case was refiled for the second time, on Friday, June 20, the federal district …
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Academic Articles and Reports Roundup: June 2014
Jaime S. King, Executive Editor June 30, 2014
Articles and Reports Round Up: June 2014 Greetings! In this installment of the Articles and Reports Round Up are the Source’s pick reads from the academic literature and policy reports from June 2014. Academic Articles Health Affairs’ June issue, titled The Economics of Health Care: Costs, Savings, and Value (be still our hearts), had two lead articles on healthcare consolidation and costs (Ginsburg and Pawlson, and Sage) followed by two commentaries. All four are well worth reading. Paul Ginsburg and Gregory Pawlson’s article, Seeking Lower Prices Where Providers Are Consolidated: An …
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