Albany, Ga.-based Phoebe Putney Health System has filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, saying the Federal Trade Commission has no role to play in its acquisition of Phoebe Putney's only nearby competitor, Palmyra Medical Center.
The crux of the FTC v. Phoebe Putney case is whether states can execute hospital mergers and acquisitions despite FTC scrutiny if a state action doctrine gives local government entities power to acquire hospitals. The FTC filed suit in April 2011 to block Phoebe Putney's acquisition — through an arranged lease with the Hospital Authority of Albany-Dougherty County — of Palmyra Medical Center, also in Albany.
Phoebe Putney is working to protect the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals' December 2011 decision, which approved the systems' $195 million merger even though it anticipated monopolistic effects. That court based their decision on a 1941 Georgia law that allows hospital authorities to acquire hospitals by purchase, lease or other means.
The FTC filed its brief with the Supreme Court in late August, questioning whether a state action doctrine is sufficient to validate allegedly anticompetitive conduct.
In Phoebe's 54-page brief, the health system says, "The FTC asks the court to replace this reasonable and respectful standard with a clear-statement rule that would subject local officials and public entities to federal antitrust oversight unless the state legislature has expressly conferred immunity, or a particular decision challenged as anti-competitive can be shown to be a 'necessary' or 'inherent' result of state legislative action.
"The hospital authority's decision to address long-standing capacity constraints, which were interfering with the discharge of its public mission, by buying an existing private facility in its local area plainly falls within the range of decisions that the Georgia legislature expected local authorities to make," the brief says. "For purposes of the federal antitrust laws, that decision was an act of the state."
The FTC declined to comment on the brief's filing, according to an Albany Herald report.
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The crux of the FTC v. Phoebe Putney case is whether states can execute hospital mergers and acquisitions despite FTC scrutiny if a state action doctrine gives local government entities power to acquire hospitals. The FTC filed suit in April 2011 to block Phoebe Putney's acquisition — through an arranged lease with the Hospital Authority of Albany-Dougherty County — of Palmyra Medical Center, also in Albany.
Phoebe Putney is working to protect the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals' December 2011 decision, which approved the systems' $195 million merger even though it anticipated monopolistic effects. That court based their decision on a 1941 Georgia law that allows hospital authorities to acquire hospitals by purchase, lease or other means.
The FTC filed its brief with the Supreme Court in late August, questioning whether a state action doctrine is sufficient to validate allegedly anticompetitive conduct.
In Phoebe's 54-page brief, the health system says, "The FTC asks the court to replace this reasonable and respectful standard with a clear-statement rule that would subject local officials and public entities to federal antitrust oversight unless the state legislature has expressly conferred immunity, or a particular decision challenged as anti-competitive can be shown to be a 'necessary' or 'inherent' result of state legislative action.
"The hospital authority's decision to address long-standing capacity constraints, which were interfering with the discharge of its public mission, by buying an existing private facility in its local area plainly falls within the range of decisions that the Georgia legislature expected local authorities to make," the brief says. "For purposes of the federal antitrust laws, that decision was an act of the state."
The FTC declined to comment on the brief's filing, according to an Albany Herald report.
More Articles on the FTC and Phoebe Putney Health System:
FTC Urges Supreme Court to Strike Previous Rulings in Phoebe Putney CaseAnother Looming Supreme Court Ruling: The Phoebe Putney-Palmyra Deal
An Overview of Recent Challenges to Hospital Transactions: Is the FTC Really More Aggressive?