Arapahoe Surgery Ctr., LLC v. Cigna Healthcare, Inc. (Summary)

ANTITRUST

Arapahoe Surgery Ctr., LLC v. Cigna Healthcare, Inc., No. 13-cv-3422-WJM-CBS (D. Colo. Feb. 20, 2015)

The United States District Court for the District of Colorado denied a motion to dismiss filed by several health insurers in an antitrust suit brought against them by a number of surgery centers. The surgery centers’ suit alleged that the insurers conspired with hospitals and others to restrain trade in violation of the Sherman Act and Colorado’s Antitrust Act. According to the complaint, the insurers joined a conspiracy with two hospitals to compel physicians not to refer patients to the surgery centers by threatening, and acting on these threats, to terminate the referring physicians’ contracts with the insurers.

The insurers filed a motion to dismiss the surgery centers’ Sherman Act and state law antitrust claims.      The court denied the motion, finding that the surgery centers adequately pled an agreement between the insurers and the hospitals, as well as conduct in furtherance of such agreement to demonstrate unlawful conspiracy under federal and state antitrust law. Further, the court concluded that the allegations in the surgery centers’ complaint were sufficient to show that the insurers’ agreement with the hospitals constituted a group boycott that may be considered per se illegal under Section 1 of the Sherman Act.