Dive Brief:
- During a preliminary antitrust hearing Monday, Lawyers for Northshore University HealthSystem and Advocate Health Care accused the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of misidentifying their market as it left out a big competitor and disregarded the benefits of their proposed merger, Modern Healthcare reports.
- FTC attorneys, on the other hand, argued that its definition of the systems was appropriate.
- The FTC decided to challenge the merger of the two systems in December 2015.
Dive Insight:
Northshore University HealthSystem and Advocate Health Care are two of Chicago's largest health systems. The competitor the FTC had left out was Northwestern Memorial Healthcare.
FTC Attorney Tom Greene said the agency had never challenged a physical market as big as this one, according to Modern Healthcare. The proposed merger would increase costs by 8% and the hospitals systems would collectively have control over 60% of general-acute inpatient services in the state's north suburbs, per the FTC.
“It (the merger) will transform the market,” Advocate representative Robert Robertson said. “It will increase competition and shake up the insurance business.”