Question

Using the Health Care page of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division website, locate three antitrust law cases. Write a 500-750 word analysis of each case that describes the following: A brief overview of the particulars of the case. The impact of the case on the law and powerbrokers. Concerns regarding the case in the role of a health care leader.

Answer 1

Famous antitrust law cases in healthcare :-

1. Partners HealthCare's acquisitions in Massachusetts. While the former Massachusetts Attorney General proposed a settlement with Partners HealthCare concerning its acquisitions of South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, Mass., and Hallmark Health System in Melrose, Mass., the deal was highly criticized and ultimately rejected by the district court.

Before the settlement was rejected, new Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy took a strong stance on the deal, firmly opposing the transactions in a three-page court filing and threatening to file an antitrust suit against Partners.

With the settlement deal being rejected by the court it will be interesting to see whether litigation follows. If the deal does go to litigation, important questions will be answered that could be applicable to other similar transactions.

2. Health First's monopoly case. Rockledge, Fla.-based Health First is facing an antitrust lawsuit accusing it of maintaining a monopoly by "intimidating physicians or otherwise obstructing their ability to practice medicine in south Brevard County if they do not play ball with Health First and refer patients exclusively to Health First hospitals and physician specialists," according to a Florida Today report.

According to the complaint, which was filed by several plaintiffs, including Melbourne, Fla.-based multispecialty group Omni Healthcare, Health First's monopoly began with its 2013 purchase of Melbourne (Fla.) Internal Medicine Associates, a multispecialty physician group. The lawsuit refers to the MIMA deal as a "merger to monopoly," according to Florida Today.

The complaint states Health First controls more than 70 percent of the acute inpatient hospital market in south Brevard County and "physicians participating in its health plans send only 15 percent of their patients to competitor Wuesthoff Medical Center-Melbourne," according to the report.

Health First's consolidation in Florida raises many questions. "For instance, if the consolidated entity owns all the hospitals in the relevant geographic area, must it provide admitting privileges to physicians outside the group?" says Mr. Cernak.

This case is currently pending in federal court in Florida..

3. AbbVie's pay-for-delay case. The Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that pay-for-delay deals are not inherently illegal, but that did not stop the FTC from suing North Chicago, Ill.-based AbbVie for allegedly keeping a generic testosterone-boosting drug under wraps for years and forcing "consumers to overpay hundreds of millions for the drug AndroGel," according to a statement by FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez.

The clear implication of AbbVie's alleged actions is that as long as generics are delayed, the costs of the drugs involved remain high.

The outcome of this case is significant because it is the first FTC action on this issue since the Supreme Court's 2013 decision regarding pay-for-delay cases. Therefore, "it gives a good indication of how the FTC will interpret the Supreme Court's opinion and will give an early indication of how the courts will respond to that interpretation," says Mr. Cernak.