Overview
Drawing on the combined resources, experience and record of our top-ranked health law and antitrust practices, McDermott’s health antitrust lawyers provide clients with sophisticated, practical legal counsel where one of the most highly regulated, rapidly evolving industries meets one of the most complex area of law. We help hospitals, health systems and other providers identify antitrust risks and implement solutions that achieve business objectives and improve the delivery of services.
We regularly advise clients regarding the antitrust implications of provider mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and joint operating agreements and defend those transactions before state and federal antitrust enforcement agencies. We assist clients in the development of clinical integration programs, accountable care organizations (ACOs) and other provider managed care contracting networks such as IPAs and PHOs, and the structuring of co-marketing arrangements, Medicaid collaboratives, trade associations and joint-purchasing arrangements.
We provide legal counsel on a broad range of day-to-day operations that may expose healthcare organizations to antitrust risks, including managed care contracts, economic credentialing, physician conflicts of interest, exclusive services agreements, purchase and use of discounted pharmaceuticals under the Non-Profit Institutions Act, integrated delivery systems, vertical integration and participation in information exchanges.
Our primary goal is to help clients avoid antitrust investigations and litigation. In so doing, we regularly develop and implement antitrust compliance plans, protocols, firewalls and training on appropriate policies and procedures. We also help clients identify and mount potential defenses and immunities, such as certificates of public advantage and joint actions to influence government policy (Noerr immunity). When investigations, civil litigation or class actions arise, our health antitrust litigators draw on their prior successes to mount a solid defense in court and before regulatory agencies.
