November 01, 2016
After the Federal Trade Commission's approach to hospital mergers was called into question by a series of stinging defeats, two circuit courts have now given ringing endorsements of the agency's enforcement methodology, fortifying the FTC in its efforts to take on the increasingly consolidated industry.
September 29, 2016
Two Chicago-area hospitals looking to combine told the Seventh Circuit Wednesday a recent Third Circuit decision siding with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over a Pennsylvania hospital merger does not help the agency’s case against them.
August 15, 2016
The Federal Trade Commission told the Seventh Circuit that a district court wrongly discounted the agency's approach to evaluating competition among hospitals when the court blocked the FTC from halting a Chicago-area hospital merger, saying Friday that the "hypothetical monopolist test" is a rigorous standard.
August 09, 2016
The Seventh Circuit should reject the Federal Trade Commission's too-narrow standard for evaluating competition among hospitals, the American Hospital Association said Monday in the government's challenge of a decision blocking an agency attempt to halt a Chicago-area hospital merger.
August 03, 2016
Illinois' largest health care system continued to deny that a merger with a nearby rival will decrease competition in the Chicago hospital market, telling the Seventh Circuit in a brief filed this week that there are more than 70 hospitals in and around the city and that the Federal Trade Commission doesn't have a case for blocking the tie-up.
July 18, 2016
The Federal Trade Commission and the Illinois attorney general will again try to block the merger of two health care systems in the suburbs of Chicago, according to an appeal filed Friday with the Seventh Circuit.
June 21, 2016
An Illinois federal judge's opinion refusing to block a Chicago-area hospital merger largely bypassed what the Federal Trade Commission sees as a crucial test for analyzing the relevant market, setting up an important Seventh Circuit appeal that could help clarify the market definition standard the agency must meet, experts say.