On September 19, 2022, the Firm obtained dismissal of the majority of Plaintiffs’ claims against client HCA Healthcare, Inc. and certain of its affiliates (“HCA”) in a class action antitrust lawsuit, significantly narrowing the Plaintiffs’ case. Plaintiffs’ complaint, filed in North Carolina state court on August 10, 2021, alleges that Asheville, North Carolina-based Mission Health hospital system (“Mission”) has engaged in anticompetitive tactics in violation of North Carolina state antitrust law, and asserts claims against Mission Health, Mission’s current owner HCA, as well as Mission’s prior owner. Specifically, the suit alleges that over the past several years (both before and after HCA’s acquisition of Mission), Mission obtained a monopoly over inpatient services in Asheville to raise prices for both inpatient and outpatient care in the Asheville area and to monopolize other markets surrounding Asheville. HCA and the other defendants filed a Motion to Dismiss on October 14, 2021, and a reply to Plaintiffs’ opposition brief on January 13, 2022. Oral argument on the Motion to Dismiss was held on April 27, 2022 and a supplemental hearing was held on August 17, 2022.
Following oral argument and a supplemental hearing, the Hon. Mark A. Davis, Special Superior Court Judge for Complex Business Cases for the Superior Court Division of the State of North Carolina, granted the majority of the Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss—including dismissing Plaintiffs’ statutory claims of monopoly acquisition, monopoly maintenance, monopoly leveraging, and attempted monopolization, as well as Plaintiffs’ claims of monopolization under the North Carolina Constitution.
The Firm also previously successfully represented HCA in defeat of Plaintiffs’ motion for class certification and ultimate resolution of an antitrust suit involving wages paid to hospital nurses.
The Simpson Thacher team includes Abram Ellis, Sara Razi, Laurel Fresquez and John Robinson.