Downers Grove, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care and Evanston, Ill.-based NorthShore University HealthSystem filed an appellate brief defending a lower court's rejection of the Federal Trade Commission's attempt to block their potential merger.
In the brief filed Monday, lawyers for the two health systems claim the FTC's definition of the market "excluded critical, real-world competitors and substitutes for those hospitals without any adequate justification."
In June, a U.S. District Court judge refused to grant the FTC an injunction to halt the merger. The judge stated that the FTC must establish an appropriate market in order to move forward with its antitrust litigation.
Advocate and NorthShore claim the FTC failed to include their most likely competitor, Chicago-based Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and several other potential competitors in the Chicagoland region when the commission narrowed the number of competitors in the market from roughly 70 to 11.
The FTC appealed the decision in June.
Oral arguments for the case are scheduled for August.