According to the complaint, United Regional is by far the largest hospital in Wichita Falls. Its share of outpatient surgical services is more than 65 percent and share of general acute-care inpatient hospital services is approximately 90 percent.
The DOJ’s Antitrust Division and Texas Attorney General’s office filed the civil antitrust lawsuit, which alleged that United Regional used restrictive contracts with payors to maintain a monopoly, causing consumers to pay higher prices for healthcare.
The complaint said United Regional systematically required most commercial payors to enter contracts that inhibited them from contracting with the health system’s competitors. If a payor did contract with a nearby competitor, United Regional allegedly required them to pay higher prices.
The proposed settlement, which requires court approval and would be in effect for seven years, prohibits United Regional from conditioning the prices or discounts it offers to commercial health insurers based on whether those insurers contract with other healthcare providers and from inhibiting insurers from entering into agreements with United Regional’s rivals.
Read the news release on United Regional Health Care System.
Read more about outpatient surgery:
– The Ambulatory Surgery Center Industry: Evolution and Future
– 19 Surgery Centers Opened or Announced in January
