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
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
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
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
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
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
Over the past several months, antitrust enforcement activity in the healthcare provider sector has continued to steadily increase. In the litigation context, this has involved, in addition to new lawsuits filed by the...more
As explained in our prior article discussing the recently- issued Merger Guidelines (“Guidelines”), the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and Department of Justice (“DOJ”) (the “Agencies”) having described and discussed the...more
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
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
In a recent post, we discussed the 13 guidelines set forth in the recently issued proposed Hospital Merger Guidelines (“Draft Guidelines”) issued by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice (the “Agencies”)....more
In a prior blog post, we discussed U.S. ex. rel. Shannon Martin, M.D. v. Darren Hathaway, M.D. et al, a Sixth Circuit case involving the questions (1) whether a hospital’s decision not to hire an ophthalmologist (Dr. Martin)...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
Mergers between competitor hospitals in the same geographic market have been routinely scrutinized and often challenged by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”). Cross-market mergers...more
Supreme Court to Hear Oral Arguments in Axon Enterprises-
With the October 2022 term of the U.S. Supreme Court (“Court”) now underway, health care providers and others in the health care industry contemplating merger and...more
10/25/2022
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
American Hospital Association ,
Amicus Briefs ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Black Box ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Fifth Amendment ,
FTC Act ,
Hospitals ,
Oral Argument ,
PCAOB ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Regulatory Agencies ,
SCOTUS ,
Subject Matter Jurisdiction
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
Background-
Many states have enacted Certificate of Public Advantage (“COPA”) laws which seek to permit hospital mergers that might otherwise have been challenged by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and found to violate...more
In the recent hospital merger cases successfully challenged by the FTC (whether via the parties calling off the merger or losing in federal court), the merging parties have argued that, while the merger would not be likely to...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
As reported in our June 13, 2022 blog post, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed complaints on June 2 seeking to block the proposed merger of RWJBarnabas Health and Saint Peter’s Healthcare System in New Jersey and the...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