Hospital groups support challenge to conditions placed on hospital affiliation

The AHA, Association of American Medical Colleges, and California Hospital Association yesterday filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Huntington Hospital and Cedars-Sinai Health System in their case challenging conditions the California Attorney General seeks to impose on their proposed affiliation.

The sole basis for these “onerous conditions” are a novel theory of cross-market effects, which no one has ever used to challenge a hospital merger and the AG’s office could use to block or modify Huntington’s affiliation with many major hospital systems, the brief states. “If approved by this Court, such wide-ranging, arbitrary authority would produce substantial uncertainty in the hospital sector and deter transactions that would benefit patients and communities throughout California.”