Driven by a growing wave of enforcer skepticism toward further healthcare consolidation, some state legislatures have begun to propose “mini-HSR” laws explicitly targeting healthcare transactions involving private equity...more
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released new Merger Guidelines on December 18, 2023—dramatically expanding the number and type of transactions that the agencies will consider...more
A US district court judge, in a case of first impression, recently held that Louisiana Children’s Medical Center’s acquisition of three New Orleans–area hospitals from HCA Healthcare, Inc. was exempt from both the federal...more
The US Federal Trade Commission is suing US Anesthesia Partners Inc. and its private equity founder for allegedly enacting an anticompetitive scheme to gain market power through a series of roll-up acquisitions....more
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division is withdrawing three enforcement policy statements that provided important guidance on the exchange of competitively sensitive information through third parties. The...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued long-awaited guidance regarding its interpretation of the scope of Section 5 of the FTC Act on November 10, 2022. The updated guidance expands what the FTC may consider to be “unfair”...more
Federal antitrust enforcers at the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) continue to take an aggressive stance in healthcare. Two recent developments underscore the trend....more
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently voted to withdraw its approval of the Vertical Merger Guidelines (the 2020 VMGs), which, as we covered in the past, the FTC and Department of Justice (DOJ) issued over a year ago...more
After a sluggish year in 2020 for mergers and acquisitions among hospitals and health systems, 2021 has shown renewed vigor and is poised for considerable transactional activity. When the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in the...more
On December 8, 2020, Judge Gerald Pappert in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania denied a request from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Pennsylvania attorney general (AG) to preliminarily...more
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division issued a Business Review Letter (BRL) on January 15 in response to a proposal by the American Optometric Association (AOA) and AOAExcel GPO, LLC to expand their group...more
The FTC announced on October 21, 2019, that its Commissioners voted 5–0 in support of issuing orders requesting information from five health insurance companies and two health systems to study the effects of Certificate of...more
A series of recent statements highlight the continuing enforcement by the US Department of Justice to focus on “no-poaching” and wage-fixing agreements with more enforcement actions expected to be announced in the near...more