A hospital should not have to arrive at death's door before the Federal Trade Commission will allow it to merge with a competitor, lawyers for the American Hospital Association have written in a friend-of-the-court brief.
The Chicago-based trade group filed a 45-page amicus brief this week (PDF) in a case in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, where judges are set to consider the FTC's order to unravel Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica Health System's acquisition of its eighth hospital, 216-bed St. Luke's Hospital in Maumee, Ohio.
In a case being watched by hospitals nationally, federal regulators have argued that the “joinder” agreement between St. Luke's and ProMedica is likely to increase prices and decrease competition among healthcare providers in the greater Toledo market. The trade commission voted 4-0 last March to uphold an administrative law judge's order for ProMedica to divest the hospital because of the market clout it had acquired.