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ASC antitrust lawsuit will go to trial in NY

Ambulatory Surgery Reimbursement Update, January 4, 2005

A federal judge has ruled that a four-year-old antitrust lawsuit focusing on the right of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) to compete with established hospitals will proceed to trial.

On December 22, 2004, the Federal District Court for the Northern District of New York issued the ruling in the case of Rome Ambulatory Surgical Center v. Rome Memorial Hospital, according to the American Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers (AAASC) Web site.

The trial, for which no date has presently been set, will address three antitrust claims, according to information published by the AAASC and in the December 27 issue of the New York Law Journal. The first claim is that the exclusive arrangements initiated against the ASC by the hospital and the two largest third-party payors, Blue Cross and MVP, were illegal under Section 1 of the Sherman Act. Second, it is claimed that the Hospital's initiation of these contracts, combined with other actions, including intimidation of certain physicians, amounted to an attempt to monopolize in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act. Finally, the trial will also address an alleged conspiracy to monopolize, which involved the hospital, a physician medical group, and certain other physicians.

A copy of the district court ruling can be found here: http://www.aaasc.org/advocacy/documents/NY122204decision_000.pdf.

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