In the words of the director of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) Bureau of Competition, the recent enforcement against Invibio, Inc., the first company to sell implant-grade polyetheretherketone, known as PEEK, to...more
For the second time in less than a year, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed an antitrust complaint against hospital systems that agreed to not advertise on billboards or in print in each other’s home county. Last...more
Back in April 2015, Teladoc, Inc., which provides U.S. board-certified doctors for consults via phone or online video, filed an antitrust challenge to stop a new Texas Medical Board (TMB) rule from taking effect that requires...more
Answering the call from state officials seeking advice regarding antitrust compliance for state boards responsible for regulating occupations, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Staff have stepped up to answer two questions...more
In the wake of Anthem’s proposed acquisition of Cigna and Aetna’s proposed acquisition of Humana, providers are lining up to be heard. Take the American Medical Association (AMA), for example, which is urging federal and...more
9/2/2015
/ Aetna ,
American Medical Association ,
Anthem Insurance ,
CIGNA ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Health Insurance ,
Healthcare ,
HMOs ,
Humana ,
Insurance Industry ,
Merger Agreements ,
Prudential Insurance
Allegiance Health (Allegiance) is the lone holdout facing antitrust charges brought by the DOJ and Michigan’s Attorney General (AG). Yet despite settlements by Hillsdale Community Health (Hillsdale), Community Health of...more
Supreme Court Decision in North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade Commission Prompts Legal Challenges to State Professional Boards - Earlier this month a Texas federal district court judge granted a...more
7/2/2015
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Bar Associations ,
Healthcare ,
In-Person Exam ,
LegalZoom ,
NC Board of Dental Examiners v FTC ,
NC Supreme Court ,
Physicians ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
State Medical Board ,
Telehealth ,
Veterinarians
The first lawsuit, in what may be a wave of antitrust litigation challenging professional board regulations in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade...more
Old and new regulations established by state professional boards that are composed of “active market participants” such as physicians, dentists and therapists, may be subject to antitrust challenge following the U.S. Supreme...more
On February 24-25, 2015, the FTC and the U.S. Department of Justice will host their second workshop on “Examining Health Care Competition.” The workshop will take place in Washington, D.C., and will focus on recent...more
With the ink still drying on the Ninth Circuit’s opinion affirming the Idaho federal district court’s order requiring St. Luke’s Health System to unwind its acquisition of Saltzer Medical Group—a for-profit, physician-owned,...more
Demand in your industry has been declining for years, the decline is projected to continue for the foreseeable future, and you are one of the few cost-effective manufacturers around. You just inked a deal to buy a competing...more
In one form or another, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been banging the drum that there is no inconsistency between antitrust enforcement and healthcare. The latest to pick-up the drumbeat is the chair of the FTC...more
Soon after someone settles “gun jumping” charges, client alerts and blog posts with informative titles like “DOJ Settlement Resolves ‘Gun Jumping’ Charges” start flying around. These “alerts” and “posts” usually recite facts...more
In a recent blog post, three Federal Trade Commission (FTC) economists splashed some cold water on advocates of “reference pricing” that seem to imply that such pricing “will increase competition between providers.” In the...more
Unless you have been in the middle of a bidding war where antitrust concerns are front and center, what is playing out between Dollar General and Family Dollar is probably unfamiliar to you, as it is rarely seen outside of...more
After touting a proposed settlement with Partners HealthCare (Partners) that supposedly would “fundamentally alter [Partners’] negotiating power for 10 years and control health costs across [Partners’] entire network,”...more
Almost one year ago, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) agreed to settle its antitrust challenge of Phoebe Putney Health System’s (Phoebe Putney) acquisition of Palmyra Medical Center (Palmyra) without requiring divesture or any...more
After almost half a dozen years of investigating Partners HealthCare’s (Partners) contracting practices and its proposed acquisitions of two competing hospital systems, Massachusetts Attorney General (AG) Martha Coakley...more
6/30/2014
With the antitrust class action against Google, Apple, Intel and other Silicon Valley heavyweights nearly in the books ($300 million plus in settlements and millions more in defense fees later), it is time once again to ask...more
6/13/2014
/ Antitrust Litigation ,
Apple ,
Class Action ,
Confidentiality Agreements ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Due Diligence ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Former Employee ,
Google ,
Intel ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
Silicon Valley
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...more
If you are a health system or hospital thinking about a potential transaction and your lawyers have not spoken with you about hospital merger simulation, maybe you should be talking with someone else.
What is hospital...more
If your organization is facing the prospect of a merger investigation and your lawyers haven’t raised the prospect of technology-assisted document review (“TAR”), then maybe you should be talking with someone...more
Just because a proposed transaction does not have to be reported in advance to the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) or the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) because it falls below the Hart-Scott-Rodino (“HSR”) Act size of...more
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...more