NCAA vs. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma: A Win for Antitrust Law and College Football Fans
A recently decided case out of Connecticut provides a useful examination of how antitrust standing issues may be analyzed in cases involving commercially-insured patients directly suing a health care system alleging economic...more
In my earlier post in the Antitrust Advocate Blog, I noted recent setbacks that the Federal Trade Commission has experienced with respect to its regulatory authority. I then asked whether the FTC would suffer another...more
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on Sept. 27, 2023, granted summary judgment against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in its challenge to the acquisition of three hospitals in Louisiana pursuant...more
As explained in prior posts, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) filed suit in April of this year in Federal District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to enjoin Louisiana Children’s Medical Center (“LCMC”) from...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been active in challenging hospital combinations. In June 2022, the FTC filed complaints to block two hospital transactions. Within weeks of the FTC's actions, both transactions were...more
Last Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) took the step of filing suit in federal court asserting that parties to a hospital acquisition who had obtained a Certificate of Public Advantage (“COPA”) from their state...more
In October 2022, the Federal Trade Commission issued a Public Comment opposing a Certificate of Public Advantage (COPA) for the merger of State University of New York Upstate Medical University (SUNY Upstate) and Crouse...more
In the first part of this article, we discussed the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) recently issued staff policy paper strongly urging states to avoid using Certificates of Public Advantage (“COPA”) which seek to immunize...more
We previously reported on several cases involving successful antitrust challenges to proposed hospital mergers involving Hackensack Meridian Health System and Englewood Hospital in Bergen County New Jersey; RWJ Barnabas...more
Just eight weeks after Hackensack Meridian Health System and Englewood Healthcare Foundation notified the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) that they were calling off their proposed merger following the Third Circuit Court of...more
Antitrust- FTC Orders Divestment of Gas Stations to Avoid Harming Competition in Local Markets- •The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued an order requiring energy company Arko Holdings Ltd. and its subsidiaries...more
At both the state and federal level, antitrust enforcement agencies continue to pursue successful challenges to physician practice transactions. This article summarizes two recent enforcement actions, as well as a new state...more
After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled on Oct. 31, 2016, that the district court's refusal to enjoin the merger of two hospital systems in Chicago's northern suburbs was based on an improper antitrust...more
The fall of 2016 has proved to be a difficult time for hospitals seeking to complete mergers in the face of antitrust challenges brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). After failing initially to persuade federal...more
On September 27, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit handed the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) a significant antitrust victory by granting its request for a preliminary injunction to stay the pending merger...more
A Federal Appeals Court has sided with the FTC and preliminarily blocked the proposed merger of the largest hospitals in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area, and Penn State Hershey Medical Center and PinnacleHealth System. The...more
On September 27, 2016, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit handed an important victory to the Federal Trade Commission and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in a closely watched hospital merger case. The decision...more
On September 27, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed a district court decision that the Federal Trade Commission and the state of Pennsylvania could not block the merger of two hospital systems,...more
For the second time in just over a month, a federal judge has denied a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) motion to enjoin the merger of two hospital systems, this time the 13-hospital Advocate Health Care and the 4-hospital...more
On May 9, 2016, a federal district court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania rejected a request from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for a preliminary injunction to enjoin the pending merger (Merger) between Penn...more
Beginning with the Federal Trade Commission’s 2007 decision in Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Corp., holding that a hospital merger in the North Chicago suburbs violated the antitrust laws, the FTC has experienced...more
A large regional health insurer extricated itself from an antitrust suit, leaving the dominant local hospital to square off alone versus an ambulatory surgical center (ASC). The U.S. District Court for the Southern District...more
St. Luke’s Health System and Saltzer Medical Group last week asked the full Ninth Circuit to reconsider its ruling that their merger violated federal antitrust laws. St. Luke’s purchased physician group Saltzer in...more
In a rare appellate opinion addressing the merits of a merger challenge, the Ninth Circuit last month sided with the Federal Trade Commission, finding that a 2012 merger of two health care providers in Idaho was likely to...more
On February 10, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (which covers Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, Alaska, Hawaii and Arizona) ordered St. Luke’s Health System, Ltd. (“St....more