Thursday, January 7, 2021 Policing hospital mergers has become a top enforcement priority among federal antitrust enforcers. In 2020 alone, the FTC sued to block three hospital transactions (Jefferson/Einstein, Methodist Le Bonheur/Tenet and Hackensack Meridian/Englewood) and submitted letters to state regulators opposing two transactions (Community/Hendrick and Community/Shannon), while the DOJ has challenged one transaction (Geisinger/Evangelical). On December 8, the FTC lost the first of its 2020 hospital merger challenges. United States District Judge Gerald Pappert denied the FTC’s motion for a preliminary injunction to block the combination of Philadelphia-area Thomas Jefferson University and Albert Einstein Healthcare Network. The FTC quickly appealed, but the Third Circuit denied the FTC’s motion for an injunction pending appeal. (The FTC has since won a second merger challenge: On December 23, Methodist Le Bonheur abandoned its planned acquisition of two Tenet hospitals in Tennessee.)