Hospital challenges key point in lawsuit.Byline: TIM TIM Timothy TIM Technical Interchange Meeting TIM Transient Intermodulation Distortion TIM Time Is Money TIM The Invisible Man (movie) TIM Telecom Italia Mobile (Italian cellular provider) CHRISTIE The Register-Guard A key argument in McKenzie-Willamette Hospital's antitrust lawsuit against PeaceHealth is legally defective and should be thrown out of the case, attorneys for PeaceHealth argue. In PeaceHealth's first official response to the lawsuit McKenzie-Willamette filed against the health care organization in January, attorneys also argued that McKenzie-Willamette filed the suit because it "does not want to compete on price or quality." McKenzie-Willamette wants to "impose artificially high prices on buyers to increase profits at the expense of the community it serves," PeaceHealth contended in its response, filed Wednesday in federal court. PeaceHealth, based in Bellevue, Wash., owns six hospitals in the Northwest, including its flagship, the 432-bed Sacred Heart Medical Center Sacred Heart Medical Center may refer to: In the United States:
The lawsuit holds huge stakes for both hospitals and for health care consumers in the southern Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley (pronounced [wɪˈlæ.mɪt], with the accent on the second syllable) is the region in northwest Oregon in the United States that surrounds the Willamette River as it proceeds northward from its . If McKenzie-Willamette loses, its executives have said, PeaceHealth's business tactics probably will drive the smaller hospital out of business or into a partnership with another big hospital group. If PeaceHealth loses, it could be ordered to pay damages in the tens of millions of dollars. McKenzie-Willamette is seeking economic damages of $15 million and punitive damages Monetary compensation awarded to an injured party that goes beyond that which is necessary to compensate the individual for losses and that is intended to punish the wrongdoer. of $20 million, sums that could be tripled under federal antitrust law antitrust law Any law restricting business practices that are considered unfair or monopolistic. Among U.S. laws, the best known is the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, which declared illegal “every contract, combination…or conspiracy in restraint of trade or . The suit accuses PeaceHealth of negotiating preferred provider contracts with Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon that effectively excluded customers from seeking care at McKenzie-Willamette. Preferred provider contracts are common in the health care industry, but the suit charges PeaceHealth with using its dominant market power to keep McKenzie-Willamette from fairly competing for those contracts. Specifically, PeaceHealth offered Regence deep discounts for two services where it has no competition - cardiovascular and neonatal neonatal /neo·na·tal/ (ne?o-nat´'l) pertaining to the first four weeks after birth. ne·o·na·tal adj. Of or relating to the first 28 days of an infant's life. intensive care - the suit charges. In return, PeaceHealth demanded that customers in the Regence plan go to Sacred Heart The Sacred Heart is a religious devotion to Jesus' physical heart as the representation of the divine love for humanity This devotion is predominantly used in the Roman Catholic Church and also used in the Anglican Church. for all other care. In its motion, PeaceHealth attorneys attacked that element of the suit, which McKenzie-Willamette claimed was an illegal "tying" scheme. In antitrust law, it's illegal for a company with market power to tell a customer, if you want to buy Product A, you also have to buy Product B, whether you want it or not. Even if McKenzie-Willamette's allegation were true, that's not tying under antitrust law, PeaceHealth attorneys argued. McKenzie-Willamette's own complaint "establishes that PeaceHealth did not condition the sale of one service on the purchase of the other," the attorneys argued. "Second, (McKenzie-Willamette) fails to allege To state, recite, assert, or charge the existence of particular facts in a Pleading or an indictment; to make an allegation. allege v. Regence was coerced into buying services it did not want." "It's a technical legal argument," Stu Hennessy, PeaceHealth's general counsel, said Thursday. "The law does not provide a remedy under those facts. It doesn't fit with the concept of tying in antitrust law." Rosie Pryor, spokeswoman for McKenzie-Willamette, said the hospital's lawyers had not yet seen the PeaceHealth motion so she was unable to comment. It's not known when U.S. Magistrate Any individual who has the power of a public civil officer or inferior judicial officer, such as a Justice of the Peace. The various state judicial systems provide for judicial officers who are often called magistrates, justices of the peace, or police justices. Thomas Coffin Thomas Coffin is the name of:
No trial date has yet been set in the case. If he were to dismiss the tying claim, McKenzie-Willamette would still have six other claims remaining against PeaceHealth on other legal grounds. |
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