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Back in December, we wrote about a district court ruling rejecting the Federal Trade Comission’s (“FTC”) motion to enjoin the proposed combination of Thomas Jefferson University (“TJU”) and Albert Einstein Healthcare Network (“Einstein”) that would create an 18-hospital system in the Philadelphia area. The FTC and the Pennsylvania Attorney General had alleged the merger would lead to TJU/Einstein controlling at least 60% of the inpatient GAC hospital services market in a portion of Philadelphia. Following the district court decision, the FTC quickly appealed to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and filed an emergency motion for a stay pending appeal. Days later, a three-judge panel denied the government’s motion without comment.
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FTC Abandons Challenge To $599M Philly Hospital Deal
Law360 (March 1, 2021, 5:53 PM EST) The Federal Trade Commission has acknowledged its first loss of a hospital merger case in years by dropping its effort to stop the proposed $599 million tie-up of Philadelphia-area health care systems Jefferson Health and Albert Einstein Healthcare Network.
The FTC has already been turned away twice in the challenge, first at the district court Dec. 8 and then three weeks later when the Third Circuit refused to issue an emergency stay on the deal while the agency appealed. As of Monday, the agency had updated the webpage tracking its in-house challenge to reflect a 4-0 vote to drop that appeal.
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The past year has been ripe with antitrust activity in the health sector, with ripple effects likely to spill into the near future and beyond.
The Federal Trade Commission is poised to get even more aggressive in enforcement against anticompetitive deals in the years to come, legal experts told Healthcare Dive, while state legislatures are eyeing ways to increase scrutiny of mergers and acquisitions in their own backyards.
The FTC said last year it was expanding a program that helps it police future and already-consummated deals. And just last year the agency made its first challenge to a hospital tie-up after a three-year lull.
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FTC Abandons Appeal of Philadelphia Hospital Merger, Allowing Jefferson and Einstein to Proceed with Creation of 18-Hospital System Tuesday, March 2, 2021
Back in December, we wrote about a district court ruling rejecting the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) motion to enjoin the proposed combination of Thomas Jefferson University (“TJU”) and Albert Einstein Healthcare Network (“Einstein”) that would create an 18-hospital system in the Philadelphia area. The FTC and the Pennsylvania Attorney General had alleged the merger would lead to TJU/Einstein controlling at least 60% of the inpatient GAC hospital services market in a portion of Philadelphia. Following the district court decision, the FTC quickly appealed to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and filed an emergency motion for a stay pending appeal. Days later, a three-judge panel denied the government’s motion without comment.
Jefferson-Einstein merger moves forward as FTC steps aside
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The Federal Trade Commission will not appeal a federal judge s dismissal of its lawsuit that sought to block the Jefferson Health and Albert Einstein Healthcare Network merger, regulators told the Pennsylvania health systems Friday.
The FTC and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro claimed that the transaction would stifle competition and likely lead to price increases after the combined entity controls 60% of the North Philadelphia acute-care market. But regulators didn t make a compelling case that insurers wouldn t be able to find viable substitutes for the merged system and thus would have to submit to higher reimbursement rate mandates, U.S. District Court Judge Gerald Pappert wrote.