Lee Memorial Health System files amicus brief in U.S. Supreme Court addressing local hospital merger being subject to federal antitrust laws

Client(s) Lee Memorial Health System

On behalf of the Lee Memorial Health System, Jones Day filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court of the United States asking the Court to affirm an Eleventh Circuit decision that found a hospital merger involving a local hospital authority was not subject to the federal antitrust laws under the "state-action doctrine." In the amicus brief, Jones Day argued that the Eleventh Circuit's decision (along with the Court's cases applying the state-action doctrine) was consistent with the Court's longstanding "foreseeability rule," under which the Court holds that the federal antitrust laws do not apply to states or their political subdivisions when they implement a state policy that might foreseeably result in anticompetitive results. This foreseeability test, Jones Day argued, maximizes the flexibility of state and local policymakers and allows them to pioneer creative, workable solutions to local policy challenges, including the vexing challenge of providing health care to members of the public who lack the ability to pay for it.

Federal Trade Commission v. Phoebe Putney Health System, Inc., No. 11-1160 (U.S.)