Feds & North Carolina Sue Carolinas HealthCare System For Anticompetitive Contracting With Health Plans

The federal Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division and the State of North Carolina are suing Carolinas Healthcare System (CHS) to end the system’s practice of requiring anticompetitive restrictions in its contracts with commercial health insurers in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area. In the civil complaint filed on June 9, 2016, the DOJ alleges that CHS used its market power to require restrictions in its contracts with every major insurer. The restrictions prohibit health insurers from creating tiered networks that offer members incentives to use lower cost, high quality services; establishing narrow-network insurance plans that include only CHS . . .