Sutter Health to Pay $575 Million to Settle Antitrust Lawsuit

The UFCW Employers Benefit, the group of unions and employers who also brought the suit, said in a statement: “From the outset, our goal has been to not only achieve justice for the members of the class, but to also put an end to the anticompetitive behavior that has allowed Sutter to charge inflated prices.”

Representatives for Sutter said the settlement did not acknowledge wrongdoing. “We were able to resolve this matter in a way that enables Sutter Health to maintain our integrated network and ability to provide patients with access to affordable, high-quality care,” said Flo Di Benedetto, Sutter’s senior vice president and general counsel, in a statement.

The health system also said it never required insurers to agree to “all or nothing” arrangements.

A tentative settlement was announced in October, just as the trial was to begin. The class-action lawsuit had accused Sutter of using its regional dominance to corral insurers so that patients could not go elsewhere for less expensive or higher quality care.

The settlement will need to be approved by a court, and a hearing is scheduled for Feb. 25 in the Superior Court of California in San Francisco. An independent monitor will ensure the agreement is followed.

The lawsuit represented a fresh legal attack on health systems accused of using their size to thwart competition and had been highly anticipated by both hospitals and health insurers.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/health/sutter-health-settlement-california.html?emc=rss&partner=rss