- Accountable Care Organizations
- Business
- Facility and Professional Regulation and Operation
- Federal Contracts
- Fraud and Abuse
- Health Care Antitrust Counseling and Litigation
- Health Care Construction
- Health Care Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Health Information Technology
- Human Resources
- Medicare and Medicaid Payment and Certification
- Ober|Kaler Health Care General Counsel Institute
- Tax-exempt Organizations
- Academic Hospitals and Faculty Practice Plans
- Ambulatory Care Facilities
- Billing and Management Providers
- Clinical Laboratories
- Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics and Supplies (DMEPOS)
- Home Health and Hospice Organizations
- Hospitals and Health Systems
- Long-Term Care Providers
- Managed Care Organizations
- Nonphysician Providers
- Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Manufacturers
- Pharmaceutical Manufacturers
- Pharmacies
- Physician Practices and Professional Organizations
Health Care Antitrust Counseling and Litigation
Ober|Kaler’s Antitrust and Competition Group works hand in hand with the firm’s nationally acclaimed Health Law Group in virtually every area of antitrust litigation, regulatory compliance interpretation, government investigations and compliance counseling.
Today’s health care professionals, general and single-specialty hospitals, physician groups and networks, insurers and managed care organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and national and state professional associations operate in one of the most highly regulated industries in the world. In the area of antitrust law, regulators act to protect and promote competition with the same zeal as they oversee safety, ethics, licensing, privacy and other aspects of health care operations.
Ober|Kaler’s antitrust attorneys have obtained successful results for our health care clients in a number of recently litigated cases and government agency reviews, including:
- Obtaining dismissal for a general acute-care hospital in a suit alleging antitrust claims based on revoking the privileges of physician-investors in a specialty hospital, Little Rock Cardiology Clinic v. Baptist Health, 591 F.3d 591 (8th Cir. 2009).
- Obtaining a favorable FTC advisory opinion for a physician clinical integration program, Tri-State Health Partners (April, 2009).
- Obtaining summary judgment for a professional association in an antitrust action alleging standard-setting to exclude plaintiff’s product, Neotonus, Inc. v. American Medical Assoc. and American Urological Assoc., 554 F. Supp. 2d 1368 (N.D. Ga. 2007), aff’d per curiam, 270 Fed. Appx. 813 (11th Cir. 2008).
- Handling other litigation, advisory opinions and merger reviews on behalf of hospitals, managed care plans and physician groups.
In the field of health care antitrust law, our attorneys help clients in a number of complex as well as routine matters and issues, including:
- Private treble damages litigation on behalf of defendants and plaintiffs
- Antitrust investigations conducted by government agencies such as
- Department of Justice Antitrust Division’s health care section
- Health Care Products and Services Division of the Federal Trade Commission
- State attorneys general and state antitrust divisions
- Hospital and physician practice mergers and acquisitions, including federal (Hart-Scott-Rodino) and state regulatory filings and proceedings
- Antitrust compliance, risk assessment and management
- Contracting networks, including clinical integration programs
- Joint venture formation, operating agreements and other collaborations
- Exclusionary conduct and abuse of dominance issues
- Medical staff credentialing, including disputes between competing physician-owned facilities and general service hospitals
- Price fixing, group boycott and other cartel activities
- Exclusive and selective contracts between providers and managed care organizations
- State medical society antitrust representation, including standard-setting issues
Many members of Ober|Kaler’s Antitrust and Competition Group speak frequently on the topic of antitrust issues in the health care industry and write about current judicial and regulatory developments and trends in health and legal journals. One attorney is the author of the six-volume treatise, Health Care & Antitrust Law, published by the West Group.
