Healthcare / Antitrust Attorneys

Overview

Sheppard Mullin’s leading healthcare antitrust lawyers routinely advise healthcare clients (health systems, physician groups, payors, sponsors, and others) in navigating federal and state antitrust reviews of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and other corporate transactions. We work with our clients to structure and implement clinically and financially integrated provider networks, as well as defend our clients in litigations and government investigations.

Our healthcare antitrust transactional practice helps our clients navigate investigations and enforcement actions in some of the most complex and heavily scrutinized transactions in the industry. We work closely to identify potential risks and develop strategies to navigate the enforcement landscape:

Structure innovative relationships for health systems, hospitals, academic medical centers and providers. Clients pursue their business and clinical objectives while minimizing antitrust risks in significant transactions including mergers, joint ventures, and in a variety of other affiliations and collaborations.
When a transaction, competitive collaboration or innovative affiliation requires state or federal review or garners the attention of antitrust enforcement authorities, clients rely on our deep experience advocating for clearance before state and federal antitrust agencies, including in the face of complicated Second Request investigations.
Our antitrust lawyers in Washington D.C. and New York have deep experience navigating the matrix of federal and state antitrust merger reviews, including the federal Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) filing process, and increasingly state notice of material change requirements for healthcare transactions.
We also work with our clients who are exploring a number of possible transactions that may range from single service line joint ventures to large hospital While we evaluate each potential transaction from an antitrust perspective at the appropriate time, these deals, particularly those involving parties in overlapping geographic areas, may impact the viability or at least the scope of antitrust review of other possible transactions, as may transactions undertaken by our clients’ competitors. Accordingly, we have found that clients’ having a comprehensive yet high-level matrix of potential transactions that they and their competitors may undertake, a “Chessboard” can provide a useful strategic tool.

While the rise of state antitrust enforcement regimes in the healthcare industry is not new, with states implementing or considering new laws and regulations requiring additional approvals for healthcare transactions. These emerging state-level reporting regimes are tracked in Sheppard Mullin’s interactive map available here, which identifies states with reporting regimes and provide a high-level indication of the types of requirements that may be imposed on healthcare transactions captured by the regimes.

Other healthcare antitrust work includes:

Assisting healthcare clients to establish, implement and operate clinically integrated networks (CINs), accountable care organizations (ACOs), Medicare bundled payment initiatives, and novel reimbursement models under Medicare Advantage and other aspects of the ACA.
Serving as antitrust litigation counsel to healthcare and other clients in extensive private litigation and price fixing cartel defense.
Counseling on standard setting, trade association work, vertical pricing and distribution issues
Representing clients in connection with civil and criminal investigations by the Federal Trade Commission, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and state attorneys general.
Developing and helping our clients to create and maintain robust antitrust compliance programs.