If you are a health system or hospital thinking about a potential transaction and your lawyers haven’t spoken with you about hospital merger simulation, then maybe you should be talking with someone else. What is hospital merger simulation? In recent years, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has come to rely more heavily on hospital merger … Continue Reading
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on BakerHostetler’s Antitrust Advocate blog. Back in early 2013, Connecticut’s Attorney General (AG) formed a “Health Care Competition Working Group” within his office to examine the potential impact of horizontal mergers (e.g., hospital to hospital) and vertical provider acquisitions (i.e., hospitals buying up physician practices) “may have on the … Continue Reading
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on BakerHostetler’s Antitrust Advocate blog. Last November, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with the “concurrence” of the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department, and over the strenuous objection of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), issued final changes to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act premerger notification rules limited solely to … Continue Reading
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on BakerHostetler’s Antitrust Advocate blog. The ink is still drying on the Idaho federal district court’s order requiring St. Luke’s Health System (“St. Luke’s”) to unwind its acquisition of Saltzer Medical Group (“Saltzer”) – a for-profit, physician-owned, multi-specialty group comprising approximately 44 physicians located in Nampa, Idaho. But hospitals considering future … Continue Reading
Despite vocal opposition from New York State Attorney General Schneiderman’s office, New York Governor Cuomo signed legislation this week authorizing Nassau Health Care Corporation (NuHealth) — a public healthcare provider that operates a hospital, skilled nursing facility and several community health centers located in Nassau County, Long Island, New York — to “engage in arrangements, … Continue Reading
With the first week in the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) and Idaho attorney general’s antitrust trial challenging St. Luke’s Health System’s (St. Luke’s) acquisition of the Saltzer Medical Group (Saltzer), a for-profit, physician-owned, multispecialty group comprising approximately 44 physicians located in Nampa, Idaho, already in the books, a lot more is at stake than just … Continue Reading
After running the table in the Supreme Court with a unanimous decision and then convincing a district court judge in Georgia to halt further consolidation of Phoebe Putney Health System (Phoebe Putney) and Palmyra Medical Center (Palmyra), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently agreed to settle its antitrust challenge of Phoebe Putney’s acquisition of Palmyra … Continue Reading
A recent article published in the Antitrust Law Journal titled “A Survey of Evidence Leading to Second Requests at the FTC,” by Darren S. Tucker, an attorney advisor to an FTC commissioner who reviewed nonpublic information on the decisions to investigate proposed transactions for the period August 2008 to August 2012, sheds light on the types of … Continue Reading
The past is never dead. It’s not even past. -William Faulkner Speaking at an American Bar Association symposium titled “Retrospective Analysis of Agency Determinations in Merger Transactions,” Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairwoman, Edith Ramirez, highlighted the FTC’s successful track record challenging transactions, but also noted “growing concern” that hospital acquisitions of physician groups are having … Continue Reading
The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the antitrust laws may forbid patent settlements that delay the market entry of generic drugs in return for large payments from manufacturers of competing branded drugs. The Court’s ruling rewarded the dogged efforts of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to expose those settlements — which the FTC labels … Continue Reading
Once again, the staff of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has rebutted calls by physician groups that state legislation is needed to allow independent physicians to collaborate. The FTC staff disputed the physicians’ assertion that the antitrust laws are a barrier to the formation of efficient collaborations benefiting consumers. In support of legislation introduced in … Continue Reading
In a ruling that may impact how professionals attempt to limit competition from alternative providers, the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners (Board) failed to convince the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that the Board’s successful effort to “expel non-dentist providers from the North Carolina teeth-whitening market” is immune from antitrust … Continue Reading
