Medical Center at Elizabeth Place is a small hospital with 12 beds housed within the former St. Elizabeth Hospital complex on Edwin C. Moses Boulebard in Dayton. Premier Health has more than a 55 percent share of Dayton’s inpatient surgical services.
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The physician-owned hospital has argued that Premier was threatened by its presence when it formed in 2006 and alleged in the anti-trust suit that Premier essentially led a boycott against it, blocking insurance contracts and physician referrals.
The Sixth Circuit judges said in their opinion that “the record leaves no doubt that Hospital Defendants felt threatened by the possibility of MCEP’s (Medical Center at Elizabeth Place’s) presence in the Dayton medical market.”
However, the majority opinion was that Elizabeth Place wasn’t able to prove that the Premier hospitals acted in a way that was “so obviously anticompetitive that it has no plausibly procompetitive features—a high hurdle for plaintiffs claiming restraint of trade.”
“We are extremely pleased that the Court of Appeals has affirmed Judge Rice’s well-reasoned and legally sound decision and the case is once again dismissed,” said Mary Boosalis, president and CEO of Premier Health, said in a statement. “We have stated all along that Premier Health acts in accordance with the law, including antitrust laws, and it was gratifying to see that both Judge Rice and the Court of Appeals have ruled that this case should be dismissed.”
Dr. John Fleishman, president of the board at Medical Center at Elizabeth Place, stated he wasn’t able to comment while the case is still under litigation and said the case will continue to be under litigation.
“It is imperative for patients and doctors in Dayton, Ohio, that the Medical Center at Elizabeth Place remains open,” he stated.
Elizabeth Place started in 2006. In 2009 the hospital sold a partial share to Kettering Health Network, a sale Elizabeth Place officials said at the time was due to pressure from Premier’s tactics.
The hospital has faced other recent hurdles. In December the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid said the hospital doesn’t see enough patients per day to count as a hospital.
The hospital was cut off from Medicare and Medicaid Jan. 18, a move which Elizabeth Place officials said could put them out of business.
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Elizabeth Place described a list of specific Premier business tactics it challenged as anti-competitive, including stipulating to insurance companies that Premier hospitals would be able to renegotiate the prices it charges the insurer if it added Elizabeth Place as in-network.
The judges wrote in their opinion that Premier’s contracts with insurance companies and physicians had plausibly pro-competitive features. For example, they wrote that another court has upheld that it is acceptable to have an exclusive arrangement because an insurance company may get better rates from a hospital in exchange for agreeing to an exclusive contract, as exclusivity will drive a higher volume of business to the hospital.
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