To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog: The Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) recent winning streak in its ongoing challenges of hospital and physician mergers has, at least for now, ended in a Philadelphia U.S. district court. After six days of evidentiary hearings, in a 62-page opinion, Judge Gerald Pappert denied[1] the FTC’s and Pennsylvania Attorney General’s request to preliminarily enjoin a proposed merger between Thomas Jefferson University (“TJU”) and the Albert Einstein Healthcare Network (“Einstein”). The FTC and Pennsylvania AG (together, the “Government”) brought suit to stop the merger in February. The Complaint alleged that the two hospital systems were close competitors for general acute care (“GAC”) hospital services, with TJU operating 11 GAC hospitals and Einstein operating three in the Northern Philadelphia area. The Government asserted that a combined TJU/Einstein would control at least 60% of the inpatient GAC hospital services market in the area, and at least 45% in a broader geographic market encompassing much of Montgomery County.