Over ten years ago, individuals and businesses insured by health plans that contract with Sutter Health filed a class action lawsuit against Sutter Health alleging antitrust violations under federal and California laws....more
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) just announced that they will host a virtual workshop on December 6 and 7, 2021, to discuss the agencies’ efforts to promote...more
The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced yesterday a criminal indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Las Vegas, Nevada charging a health care staffing company and its former manager of entering into and engaging in...more
4/2/2021
/ Antitrust Conspiracies ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Indictments ,
No-Poaching ,
Sherman Act ,
Staffing Agencies ,
Wage-Fixing
Last week, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced the criminal indictment of Surgical Care Affiliates LLC (“SCA”), an Alabama- and Illinois-based company, which owned and operated outpatient medical centers around the...more
Yesterday the Department of Justice announced that a federal grand jury indicted Neeraj Jindal, the former owner of a therapist staffing company in north Texas, for his participation in a conspiracy to fix the wages of...more
On March 14, 2019, a California state court denied Sutter Health’s motion for summary judgment on claims of alleged price tampering and combination to monopolize under California’s Cartwright Act, the state’s principal...more
3/28/2019
/ Anticompetitive Behavior ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Cartwright Act ,
Case Consolidation ,
Healthcare Costs ,
Hospitals ,
Intent ,
Monopolization ,
Motion for Summary Judgment ,
Price-Fixing ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Restraint of Trade ,
Self-Insured Health Plans ,
Sherman Act ,
State Attorneys General ,
Vertical Restraints
In a long-running antitrust case, the Eleventh Circuit recently denied defendant Blue Cross Blue Shield’s interlocutory appeal of the district court’s ruling that certain allegedly restrictive practices of defendants must be...more
12/18/2018
/ Antitrust Litigation ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Blue Cross ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
IP License ,
Per Se Rule ,
Price-Fixing ,
Rule-of-Reason Analysis ,
Sherman Act ,
Standard of Review ,
Trademarks
Last month the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (the “DOJ”) announced a proposed settlement in its anti-steering case against Atrium Health (formerly known as Carolinas HealthCare System) (“Atrium”). US v. The...more
The Third Circuit reinstated an antitrust suit brought by a medical device seller that alleged Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and five of its member insurance plan administrators shut out the seller by conspiring to deny...more
Since 2013, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association has faced a series of purported class actions consolidated in the U.S. District Court in Alabama. In a recent decision focused upon the appropriate standard of review, the...more
4/16/2018
/ Antitrust Litigation ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Best Efforts Clauses ,
Blue Cross ,
Health Care Providers ,
License Agreements ,
Mergers ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
Per Se Rule ,
Price-Fixing ,
Rule-of-Reason Analysis ,
Sherman Act ,
Single Entity Rule ,
Standard of Review
On October 23, 2017, a company that developed software to track and trace pharmaceuticals filed a complaint against a pharmaceutical distributors trade association that currently dominates the market for such software,...more
After five years of growth through a series of acquisitions, the Washington State Attorney General’s office filed a lawsuit to thwart and unwind the most recent expansion efforts of Franciscan Health System (“CHI Franciscan”)...more
9/13/2017
/ Acquisitions ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Attorney General ,
Consumer Protection Act ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Costs ,
Merger Controls ,
Price-Fixing ,
Sherman Act ,
State Antitrust Claims ,
The Clayton Act
On the eve of trial, and after years of litigation (including an appeal to the Sixth Circuit), all claims by Dayton, Ohio hospital The Medical Center at Elizabeth Place (“MCEP”) against Premier Health Partners (“Premier”)...more
8/17/2017
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Appeals ,
Boycotts ,
Dismissal With Prejudice ,
Health Care Providers ,
Hospitals ,
Joint Venture ,
Per Se Rule ,
Rule-of-Reason Analysis ,
Sherman Act ,
Standard of Review ,
Vertical Restraints
A New Jersey district court recently denied a motion to dismiss in an antitrust class action alleging that a physician association illegally tied board certification to association membership in violation of Section 1 of the...more
6/19/2017
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Business Associations ,
Certification Requirements ,
Class Action ,
Consumer Fraud ,
Illegal Tying Arranegements ,
Membership Agreements ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Osteopathic Physicians ,
Physicians ,
State Medical Board
In an opinion written by Judge Posner, the Seventh Circuit on Friday gave its stamp of approval to a “must-have” hospital’s bargaining to exclude competitors from certain narrow-network payor contracts in and around Peoria,...more
6/12/2017
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Appeals ,
Contract Terms ,
Exclusive Dealing Agreements ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance ,
Hospitals ,
Monopolization ,
Patients ,
Payor Contracts ,
Preferred Hospital Networks Arrangement ,
Richard Posner ,
Summary Judgment
A federal district court denied summary judgment motions brought by both sides in the government’s antitrust suit against a Michigan hospital alleging an agreement not to compete in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act....more
6/7/2017
/ Advertising ,
Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Attorney General ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Hospitals ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
ProMedica ,
Sherman Act ,
Summary Judgment
Even with a reduced lineup of only two commissioners — the Republican Acting Chair and one Democratic Commissioner — the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC” or “Commission”) filed an administrative complaint this week against...more
6/2/2017
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Immunity ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Appraisal ,
Competition ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Real Estate Market ,
Real Estate Professionals ,
Section 5 ,
State Action Immunity ,
State Boards
On March 30, 2017, in a closely watched case, a federal district court denied the Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings filed by Carolinas Healthcare against the DOJ Antitrust Division and State of North Carolina’s Complaint...more
4/3/2017
/ Anti-Steering Rules ,
Anticompetitive Behavior ,
Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Contract Terms ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Health Insurance ,
Hospitals ,
Judgment on the Pleadings ,
Motion for Judgment ,
Pleadings ,
Restraint of Trade
The Third Circuit reminds, “[i]n antitrust suits, definitions matter.” Last week, in applying that maxim, the court affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a suit filed by a hospital against a competing hospital and physician...more
Last week, in In re Aluminum Warehousing Antitrust Litigation, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (“Second Circuit”) rejected a claim by certain downstream end-users of aluminum that their price manipulation...more
8/16/2016
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Civil Conspiracy ,
Class Action ,
Consumer Protection Act ,
Derivatives ,
Dismissals ,
End-Users ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
Market Participants ,
Price Manipulation ,
Price-Fixing ,
Purchasers ,
Standing ,
Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices
In recent years, federal antitrust enforcers and businesses that accept payment cards have been waging a slow war against payment card fees and the card network rules that protect them. The payment card industry’s antitrust...more
8/4/2016
/ American Express ,
Anti-Steering Rules ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Appeals ,
ATMs ,
Banks ,
Civil Conspiracy ,
Competition ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Credit Cards ,
Damages ,
Debit and Credit Card Transactions ,
Debit Cards ,
Discover Bank ,
FRCP 23(b)(2) ,
FRCP 23(b)(3) ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Interchange Fees ,
Market Power ,
MasterCard ,
Merchant Fees ,
Merchants ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Price-Fixing ,
Reversal ,
Settlement ,
Sherman Act ,
Visa Inc
A popular weapon used to contain health care expenditures is the creation by payors and employers of tiered provider networks, which by differentiated co-pays attempt to steer insureds to less expensive choices. In...more
In the latest chapter in the litigation wars against college athletics, on March 8, 2016, another antitrust class action was filed against the NCAA in its “home court,” the United States Southern District of Indiana. This...more