Kissing Camels Surgery Ctr., LLC v. Centura Health Corp. (Summary)

ANTITRUST

Kissing Camels Surgery Ctr., LLC v. Centura Health Corp., No. 12-cv-3012-WJM-BNB (D. Colo. Feb. 13, 2014)

The United States District Court for the District of Colorado granted in part and denied in part motions to dismiss filed by a health system, insurers, and others in an antitrust suit brought against them by several ambulatory surgery centers (“ASCs”).  The ASCs alleged that the defendants conspired to reduce competition for ambulatory surgery services by not doing business with the ASCs, and by pressuring physicians and insurers to not do business with the ASCs.

The court, among other things, denied the health system’s motion to dismiss, finding that the ASCs had sufficiently pleaded claims under Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act against the health system because their complaint “describe[d] an overt agreement between competing parties to put [the ASCs] out of business by influencing physicians and insurers not to do business with [the ASCs], with the goal of reducing competition for their own respective hospitals and surgery centers” and “set forth overt anticompetitive acts in support of an attempt to exclude [one of the ASCs] from the [relevant] market.”

With regard to the ASCs’ claims under Section 1 of the Sherman Act against the insurance companies, the court granted their motions to dismiss because the ASCs’ complaint did not set forth allegations that the insurers agreed with the other defendants to engage in anticompetitive conduct.