June proved to be a tricky month for hospital transactions, with heavy Federal Trade Commission involvement with two abandoned deals, JD Supra reported July 12.
At the start of the month, the FTC voted 5-0 to seek administrative trials for two hospital transactions after issuing formal complaints to curb the merger of Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare and Dallas-based Steward Health Care System as well as the acquisition of New Brunswick, N.J.-based Saint Peter's Healthcare System by West Orange, N.J.-based RWJBarnabas Health.
In the case of HCA and Steward Health Care System, the FTC claimed that competition between the two kept costs down.
With RWJBarnabas Health and Saint Peter's Healthcare System, the objection was similar, as the two systems have hospitals just 1 mile apart in New Brunswick and a merger would eradicate any competition.
Both transactions were abandoned in the weeks following and suggested a likely trend for future transactions — even for hospitals or health systems without "obvious competitive issues," according to JD Supra.