Dive Brief:
- An injunction request by FTC antitrust regulators was granted Friday to hold off the merger between Advocate Health Care and NorthShore University HealthSystem until a court can hear the commission's appeal of last week's previous ruling that the merger would not hurt competition in the Chicago area.
- The injunction blocks the hospital systems from finalizing the deal promptly; they had hoped to complete it by July 1, reported Crain's Chicago Business.
- The hospital systems released a joint statement saying the injunction was expected as part of the appeal process.
Dive Insight:
Both of this week's decisions were handed down by U.S. Northern District Judge Jorge Alonso, who cleared the way for the merger to proceed but also agreed to the FTC's delay to allow time for the case to be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals--leaving the merger still in limbo, and delayed at the very least.
“We believe that this merger is anticompetitive,” an FTC spokeswoman said in a prepared statement. “We are pleased that the court has enjoined it, and we look forward to proving our case on the merits of the appeal.”
Advocate, a 12-hospital system, is already the largest hospital network in Illinois and joining with NorthShore would bring in four more, Crain's noted, forming a system that would span from nearly the Wisconsin border to central Illinois.
The health systems argue that combining forces will result in lower costs for consumers through the use of a low-cost health insurance plan.