On Friday, February 3, the Department of Justice, Antitrust Division (the “DOJ”) announced its withdrawal of three policy statements on health care antitrust enforcement: (1) The Department of Justice and Federal Trade...more
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal recently voiced skepticism of Kentucky’s Certificate of Need (“CON”) laws while simultaneously ruling that they met the Fourteenth Amendment’s “rational basis” test....more
Just as we thought 2022 was going to be significantly different than 2021, December 2021 and January 2022 events have thrown us for another (pandemic) loop. We anticipate that some of the privacy and cybersecurity...more
1/12/2022
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Auto-Dialed Calls ,
Biometric Information ,
Biometric Information Privacy Act ,
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) ,
CAN-SPAM Act ,
CARU ,
CDPA ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
COPPA ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Security ,
Employee Tracking ,
EU ,
FCC ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Identity Theft ,
Machine Learning ,
Mobile Privacy ,
Ransomware ,
SCOTUS ,
TCPA
Like other players in the healthcare industry, physician groups are facing increased antitrust scrutiny from the Biden administration, with the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) and Department of Justice, Antitrust...more
6/15/2021
/ Antitrust Division ,
Clinically Integrated Networks (CINs) ,
Collaboration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Mergers ,
Physicians ,
Private Equity
As it continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare sector will face increased antitrust scrutiny from the Biden administration, with the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) and Department of Justice,...more
We’re examining several topics that relate to competition regulation in a post-pandemic world. First, we’re exploring how the European Union (EU) is providing (or failing to provide) state aid to companies that need it. Then,...more
On April 4, 2020, the Department of Justice issued a business review letter allowing collaboration among five distributors of personal-protective equipment (“PPE”), oxygen, and medications. This is the first business review...more
On January 23, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (“Third Circuit”) issued an opinion denying the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the right to recover attorney’s fees after it had successfully blocked a...more
2/4/2019
/ Antitrust Litigation ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Fee-Shifting ,
FTC Act ,
Health Care Providers ,
Hospital Mergers ,
Merger Agreements ,
Section 16 ,
Section 7 ,
The Clayton Act
On November 15, 2018, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice settled a two-and-a-half year long lawsuit against Atrium Health, a North Carolina hospital system formerly known as the Carolinas HealthCare...more
11/27/2018
/ American Express ,
Anti-Steering Rules ,
Anticompetitive Agreements ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Burden of Proof ,
Credit Card Surcharges ,
Merchant Fees ,
Merchants ,
Ohio v American Express ,
Rule-of-Reason Analysis ,
SCOTUS ,
Sherman Act
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided its first antitrust case in almost three years, establishing a new rule that in the two-sided credit card network market, a plaintiff must analyze both the merchant services side and the...more
7/19/2018
/ American Express ,
Anti-Steering Rules ,
Anticompetitive Agreements ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Burden of Proof ,
Credit Card Surcharges ,
Merchant Fees ,
Merchants ,
Ohio v American Express ,
Rule-of-Reason Analysis ,
SCOTUS
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in San Francisco County Superior Court on March 29, 2018 (the “Complaint”), alleging that Sutter Health (“Sutter”), one of Northern California’s...more
4/9/2018
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Attorney General ,
Cartwright Act ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Contract Terms ,
Health Care Providers ,
Hospitals ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Physicians ,
Price-Fixing ,
Sutter Health
The Seventh Circuit refused to revive an exclusive dealing claim by one hospital against its competitor because of an exclusivity agreement with an insurance plan. Judge Richard Posner wrote the short opinion strongly...more
On April 28, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld a February 8, 2017 decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the $54 billion acquisition of Cigna Corp. by Anthem, Inc.....more
The antitrust injury and antitrust standing defenses/doctrines are alive and well in healthcare. A recent case, SCPH Legacy Corp. et al. v. Palmetto Health et al., shows that a competitor is not always the most legally...more
3/16/2017
/ Anti-Monopoly ,
Antitrust Litigation ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Article III ,
Competition ,
Health Care Providers ,
Hospitals ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Standing
In what will undoubtedly be seen by all interested parties as a significant setback in the Federal Trade Commission’s active opposition to potentially anticompetitive healthcare collaborations, the FTC voted unanimously on...more
On June 9, 2016, the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice (“DoJ”) filed a complaint against the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority, d/b/a Carolinas Health Care System (“CHS”) in the United...more
The FTC just suffered a major setback in its concerted efforts to challenge the ever growing number of consolidations in the healthcare industry, failing to secure a preliminary injunction to block a hospital merger in...more
On April 22, 2015, the Federal Trade Commission submitted a public letter to the New York State Department of Health (DOH) expressing “strong concerns” over state regulations offering to provide antitrust immunity to certain...more
The Massachusetts Attorney General and others are currently advocating for legislation that would accord greater legal weight to the findings of an independent state agency, the Health Policy Commission, on the effects of...more
The Eleventh Circuit recently affirmed a Federal Trade Commission finding that a manufacturer’s rebate program requiring exclusivity from its distributors was an unlawful maintenance of monopoly power under Section 5 of the...more
On February 10, 2015, the Ninth Circuit issued its highly-anticipated decision at the intersection of health care and antitrust, affirming the lower court’s finding that a hospital-physician group merger completed nearly...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released proposed regulations to clarify and build on current regulatory requirements for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) that participate in the Medicare Shared...more
Modern antitrust law has made it increasingly difficult for unilateral terminations of vertical relationships between suppliers and distributors or dealers to be attacked through the use of federal and state antitrust...more
Developments in modern antitrust law have made it increasingly difficult for termination of vertical relationships between a supplier and a dealer to be actionable under the antitrust laws, particularly under a per se theory...more
In Medical Center at Elizabeth Place v. Premier Health Partners et. al, Case No. 12-cv-26 (S.D. Oh. Oct. 20, 2014), the Southern District of Ohio held that previously-competing health care systems who join together in a...more