Practice Areas & Industries: Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC

Practice/Industry Group Overview

An in-depth understanding of the economics, regulatory constraints and business pressures unique to health care are essential in health care antitrust representation. Baker Donelson attorneys provide guidance to participants in health care markets regarding the structure and operation of provider networks and other collaborative ventures, including mergers and acquisitions. We have successfully argued health care clients' positions at the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, as well as before state attorneys general. Our lawyers are proactive in taking advantage of the protections afforded by the antitrust laws to combat predatory and anticompetitive business practices (engaged in by a client's rival) that interfere with a client's ability to compete in its market.

Representative Matters

• Successfully defended the merger of two multi-specialty clinics, first in response to a Department of Justice investigation and then, later, in a private lawsuit brought by a market competitor. See HTI Health Services, Inc. v. Quorum Health Group, Inc., 960 F. Supp. 1104 (S.D. Miss. 1997). This is now regarded as the leading physician clinic merger case.
• Framed preservation of competition rationales to support certificate-of-need applications.
• Counseled hospitals and physicians on the formation and operation of provider networks, consistent with the Department of Justice/Federal Trade Commission Statements of Antitrust Enforcement Policy in Health Care.
• Successfully argued before a state attorney general which resulted in the state's stopping hospital acquisitions that would have crippled a client hospital.
• Preparation of Hart-Scott-Rodino pre-merger notification reports for significant mergers and/or acquisitions of health care providers, and performed market analysis and advocacy before the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice to deflect potential antitrust challenges.
• Coordinated with and prepared economic expert witnesses regarding testimony as to competitive effects in merger and certificate-of-need cases.
• Baker Donelson health care attorneys include a former assistant chief in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, a former assistant director in the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition, and the author of a nationally recognized treatise on Federal Trade Commission law, practice and procedure.