President Trump issued a Memorandum on April 6 directing the heads of all executive departments and agencies to identify on a fast-track basis (60 days) certain categories of “unlawful and potentially unlawful” regulations...more
4/24/2025
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Chevron Deference ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Executive Orders ,
Healthcare ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Presidential Memorandum ,
Regulatory Agencies ,
Regulatory Reform ,
SCOTUS ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Trump Administration
On April 9, President Trump issued an Executive Order instructing agency heads, in consultation with the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Attorney General, to complete a review of all regulations subject...more
On March 27, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it was launching an Anticompetitive Regulations Task Force, whose stated purpose is to advocate for the elimination of anticompetitive state and federal laws...more
On Feb. 26, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson issued a “Directive Regarding Labor Markets Task Force” pursuant to which a Joint Labor Task Force is being organized consisting of the Directors of the...more
Back in late January, U.S. District Court Judge Xavier Rodriguez in the Western District of Texas granted summary judgment to Loredo Medical Center (LMC) and a locally-based interventional cardiology group (LMC Cardiology...more
2/24/2025
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Evidence ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Monopolization ,
Section 2 ,
Sherman Act ,
Summary Judgment
On Feb. 18, in U.S. v. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, the First Circuit Court of Appeals joined the Sixth Circuit and the Eighth Circuit in holding that, for purposes of establishing that a claim for payment of items or services...more
2/21/2025
/ Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Appeals ,
Appellate Courts ,
Causation ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Government Agencies ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Medicare ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Qui Tam ,
Regeneron ,
Summary Judgment ,
Whistleblowers
In March 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (collectively, Agencies) issued a request for information (RFI) seeking public comment...more
1/27/2025
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare ,
Hospitals ,
Mergers ,
Physicians ,
Private Equity ,
Transparency
We previously reported on the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) lawsuit against U.S. Anesthesia Partners (USAP) and the private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (Welsh Carson). In the lawsuit, the FTC alleges that...more
1/23/2025
/ Acquisitions ,
Anti-Competitive ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Consent Order ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Healthcare ,
Hospitals ,
Mergers ,
Portfolio Companies ,
Private Equity ,
Private Equity Firms ,
Unfair Competition
This white paper discusses FCC v. Consumers’ Research, a case now set for consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court, along with a review and analysis of the major impact it may have on how and when Congress may permissibly...more
1/9/2025
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Certiorari ,
Chevron Deference ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
FCC ,
Government Agencies ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Authority ,
SCOTUS ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Telecommunications
On Jan. 2, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) filed its opening brief with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Ryan LLC et.al. v. Federal Trade Commission, the case in which the plaintiffs are...more
The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (Agencies) announced on Dec. 11, 2024, that they have withdrawn the Antitrust Guidelines for Collaborations Among Competitors (Guidelines) issued in...more
12/16/2024
/ Collaboration ,
Competition ,
Cybersecurity ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Healthcare ,
Horizontal Merger Guidelines ,
Research and Development ,
Safe Harbors ,
SCOTUS ,
Sherman Act ,
Withdrawal
On Nov. 5, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed its opening brief in its pending appeal in Properties of the Villages, Inc. v. FTC,No. 24–13102 (M.D. Florida). As previously reported, on Aug. 14, Judge Timothy Corrigan...more
This white paper details the significant differences between the Federal Trade Commission’s Proposed Rule and recently issued Final Rule with respect to various premerger reporting requirements under the Hart-Scott-Rodino...more
10/25/2024
/ Competition ,
Contract Drafting ,
Corporate Officers ,
Corporate Sales Transactions ,
Directors ,
Documentation ,
Employee Retention ,
Federal Register ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Geolocation ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Lead Supervisory Authority ,
Letters of Intent ,
Mergers ,
Minority Shareholders ,
Premerger Notifications ,
Second Requests ,
Suppliers ,
Waiting Periods
In June 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (Commission) proposed major changes to its premerger notification rules that implement the Hart-Scot-Rodino Act and impact a large swath of merger and acquisition transactions each...more
On Oct. 18, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) expectedly filed a notice of appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Ryan LLC et.al. v. Federal Trade Commission. As has been previously reported, Judge Ada M. Brown in...more
On Oct. 7, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for review and let stand a widely watched Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision in which the court ruled that the term “willfully” as used in the Anti-Kickback Statute...more
Last February, New York-based Northwell Health and Connecticut-based Nuvance Health announced that they had entered into an agreement under which the health systems would merge. Thereafter, the New York State Office of...more
In a decision on Aug. 20 impacting employers and employees nationwide, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas granted Plaintiff Ryan LLC’s motion for summary judgment, set aside the FTC’s Noncompete Rule...more
8/22/2024
/ Arbitrary and Capricious ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Bans ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Injunctions ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Statutory Authority ,
Texas ,
Unfair Competition
In an earlier report, we examined the recent decision of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in ATS Tree Services, Inc. v. FTC, in which the Court rejected the plaintiff’s request for the...more
On July 23, 2024, U.S. District Court Judge Kelley Brisbon Hodge (E.D. Pa) denied the request of ATS Tree Services, LLC (ATS).[1], a tree care company operating in Eastern Pennsylvania, for issuance of a stay of the Sept. 4,...more
7/30/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Chamber of Commerce ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Lack of Authority ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Statutory Authority ,
Summary Judgment ,
Unfair Competition
The Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (and its companion case, Relentless v. Department of Commerce), in which it overruled the Chevron doctrine, has received a great deal of attention...more
7/29/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Affordable Care Act ,
Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Chevron Deference ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Physician Medicare Reimbursements ,
Relentless Inc v US Department of Commerce ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Stark Law ,
Statutory Interpretation
The Supreme Court on June 27 issued its opinion in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy in which it held that when the SEC seeks civil penalties against a defendant for securities fraud, the Seventh Amendment...more
7/12/2024
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Administrative Procedure Act ,
Article III ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Healthcare Facilities ,
Jury Trial ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
SCOTUS ,
SEC v Jarkesy ,
Section 7 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Seventh Amendment ,
The Clayton Act
We have been reporting on the Federal Trade Commission’s continuing effort to block Novant Health’s purchase of Lake Norman Regional Medical Center and Davis Regional Psychiatric Hospital from Community Health Systems. Last...more
We reported last week on the U.S. District Court’s denial of an FTC request for a preliminary injunction to block Novant Health’s “Novant) purchase of Lake Norman Regional Medical Center (LNR) and Davis Regional Psychiatric...more
In February, 2023, Novant Health and Community Health Systems (CHS) entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement pursuant to which Novant agreed to acquire Lake Norman Regional Medical Center (LNR) and Davis Regional Psychiatric...more