A union trust fund representing grocery store employees has filed suit against Sacramento-based Sutter Health, claiming the system has violated antitrust laws and driven hospital costs for at least a decade, according to a San Francisco Business Times report.
The 45-page suit was filed by UFCW & Employers Benefit Trust, which is seeking class-action status. The suit claims Sutter's allegedly anticompetitive behavior stems back to 2002 and has led to "inflated prices that far exceed the prices its hospitals could charge in a free, competitive market," according to the report.
The lawsuit argues that Sutter, through "All-or-Nothing Terms," forces health plans to include all of its hospitals in plan networks instead of picking and choosing those hospitals with the best rates and quality offerings, according to the report.
Sutter officials told the San Francisco Business Times that they have still have not seen the lawsuit, although they "strongly disagree" with its allegations.
System spokesperson Bill Gleeson provided comment via email to the San Francisco Business Times. "Allegations that Sutter Health negotiates prices with insurers on an all or none basis (are) simply not true," he said. "We have dozens of products with large health plans that have parts and pieces of Sutter Health" in their networks.
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