Antitrust Enforcement
[Sutter Case Watch] Court Approval of Final Settlement Concludes State Antitrust Action Against Sutter Health
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor August 30, 2021
See case page: UFCW & Employers Benefit Trust v. Sutter Health On August 27, nearly two years after the parties reached a proposed settlement agreement, Judge Anne-Christine Massullo of the San Francisco Superior gave the final approval to the settlement of the high profile antitrust case against Sutter Health. The final settlement was stalled several times along the way, first due to the coronavirus pandemic, then the court’s rejection of the compliance monitor, and most recently disputes over attorney fees, which was the subject of the preliminary approval hearing on July …
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Cedars-Sinai/Huntington Cross-Market Affiliation Settle with Revised Competitive Impact Conditions
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor August 16, 2021
Healthcare entities have continued to actively pursue proposed mergers and affiliations during —and in part driven by— the coronavirus pandemic. Since the settlement of the Sutter Health antitrust lawsuit, the proposed affiliation of Cedars-Sinai Health System and Huntington Memorial Hospital in California has emerged as the leading case that has captured the attention of health policy experts as to its antitrust implications. The Source also weighed in on the case with an amicus brief filed with the Los Angeles County Superior Court. In this post, we further detail the background …
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North Carolina Class Action Sues HCA/Mission Health for Anticompetitive Contracting Practices
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor August 11, 2021
Breaking: A class action lawsuit has been filed in North Carolina state court against HCA Healthcare and Mission Health, alleging anticompetitive practices in violation of the North Carolina Constitution and antitrust and consumer protection laws. The lawsuit follows HCA’s 2019 acquisition of Mission Health in North Carolina, which was approved with conditions by the North Carolina AG, although none of which were competitive impact conditions. Plaintiffs, who are North Carolina patients, claim that Tennessee-based HCA used market power garnered from the cross-market merger to demand anticompetitive terms in contracts with …
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Updated: States with Certificate of Public Advantage (COPA) Laws
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor August 10, 2021
In the most recent legislative session, Indiana enacted a new certificate of public advantage (COPA) law (SB 416) that allows mergers of certain hospitals to receive immunity from claims of state antitrust laws for the duration of the certificate. Specifically, hospitals eligible for the COPA must be located in a predominately rural county with a specific population cap and has no more than two hospitals in the statewide comprehensive trauma care system. Indiana joins 17 other states with existing COPA laws and 1 states with limited COPA laws, mostly enacted …
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Biden’s Executive Order Reinvigorates Competition Policy
Katie Gudiksen, Senior Health Policy Researcher and Alex Montague, Amy Y. Gu, Jaime King August 5, 2021
This blog post is copublished with Milbank Memorial Fund. On July 9, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, announcing his intent to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement throughout US industries with a special focus on certain markets including health care. The executive order and accompanying fact sheet cites research showing that hospitals in consolidated markets charge far higher prices than hospitals with several competitors and that hospital consolidation has left many areas, especially rural communities, without good options for convenient and affordable health care …
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New on The Source: Downloadable Chart of Merger Review Legal Authority for All 50 States
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor August 3, 2021
Newly available on the Source: our health policy research team compiled a user-friendly, downloadable Excel spreadsheet of all provider merger review authority for all 50 states, now on the Market Consolidation interactive key issue page. The detailed chart provides clickable citations of all statutes, regulations, and state authority for mergers, acquisitions, conversions, or changes in ownership of healthcare providers. The comprehensive spreadsheet allows side-by-side comparisons of the level of legal authority for each state to receive notice of impending transactions, review those transactions, and approve, conditionally approve, or disapprove them. …
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California Health Care Quality and Affordability Act (AB 1130) Passes Assembly, On Path to Creating Healthcare Cost Commission in California
Mallory Warner, Health Policy Research Fellow July 15, 2021
In February of this legislative session, California Assemblymember Jim Wood introduced AB 1130, titled the California Health Care Quality and Affordability Act. Wood was prompted to draft AB 1130 when a 2020 California Health Care Foundation poll found that 84% of Californians surveyed cited health care affordability as an extremely or very important issue to them.[1] The bill would establish the Office of Healthcare Affordability (the “office”) within the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) and be tasked with analyzing health care markets for cost trends and drivers …
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Biden Executive Order Seeks to Tackle Healthcare Consolidation and Boost Competition
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor July 12, 2021
In an encouraging boost to efforts to promote healthcare competition and price transparency, President Biden signed a sweeping executive order that targets consolidation and lack of competition in the healthcare industry, among others. As part of the Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy released on July 9th, the President targeted specific market players in the healthcare sector, including hospitals, health insurers, and prescription drug manufacturers. The Executive Order affirms the policy of the Biden Administration “to enforce the antitrust laws to combat the excessive concentration of industry, …
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Healthcare Merger Challenges: Q2 2021 Update
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor June 15, 2021
In this mid-year issue of Litigation and Enforcement Highlights, we provide updates on several pending healthcare transactions. As much of the country recovers from COVID-19, healthcare entities continue to actively pursue proposed mergers and affiliations that could further change the landscape of the healthcare market. In the last update, federal enforcement agencies saw a mixed bag of results to their enforcement efforts, with an FTC loss against Jefferson-Albert Einstein, a DOJ settlement with Geisinger-Evangelical, and several proposed mergers that buckled under antitrust scrutiny (see case reference table below). Since then, …
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[Case Brief] Sidibe v. Sutter Health: The Oldest Chapter in the Sutter Antitrust Saga Sees New Light for Class Plaintiffs
Amy Y. Gu, Managing Editor May 17, 2021
See case page: Sidibe v. Sutter Health As all eyes were fixated on UFCW & Employers Benefit Trust v. Sutter Health (UEBT), the landmark state antitrust lawsuit that the California attorney general brought against Sutter Health, another long-standing litigation against Sutter in federal court for similar claims has largely gone under the radar. With the final judgment in the state action set to be approved in state court this July, we turn our attention to Sidibe v. Sutter Health, the other case to watch in the ongoing antitrust challenge against …
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