In August 2013, following a merger challenge by the FTC that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Hospital Authority of Albany-Dougherty County and Phoebe Putney Health System agreed to settle. In April 2011, the FTC challenged the acquisition as having anticompetitive effects and alleging that Phoebe had structured the deal to improperly take advantage of the state action doctrine. On June 27, 2011 the district court dismissed the FTC’s complaint, ruling that Phoebe Putney was immune from antitrust liability under the state action doctrine. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed. The Supreme Court reversed, ruling that the state of Georgia has no clearly articulated a policy that allows hospital authorities to make acquisitions that substantially lessen competition, after which the parties settled.