The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and a Massachusetts Superior Court each recently released decisions dealing with alleged violations of antitrust prohibitions that implicate a number of important issues surrounding health care reform and the consolidation of health care providers. These cases have been closely watched by the health care community due to the current industry-wide uncertainty regarding the compatibility of federal antitrust laws with the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) health care reform provisions that incentivize provider integration and consolidation.

NINTH CIRCUIT UPHOLDS FTC CHALLENGE OF ST. LUKE’S PHYSICIAN PRACTICE ACQUISITION -

On February 10, 2015, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (Ninth Circuit) affirmed an Idaho District Court (District Court) ruling (as reported in a prior Health Law Pulse) that a health system’s acquisition of a large physician group (Merger) violated federal antitrust law.