The bill says East Meadow, N.Y.-based Nassau Health Care Corp., known as NuHealth, will be immunized from liability under federal and state antitrust laws. The entity is a public benefit corporation that includes Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, an extended care facility and five community health centers.
The legislation doesn’t specifically name Great Neck, N.Y.-based North Shore-LIJ, according to the report, but it would let NuHealth join forces with a private entity to operate its extended care facility and community centers. NuHealth has been pursuing a public-private partnership with North Shore-LIJ since last year.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo must either sign or veto the bill by midnight Wednesday, according to the report.
Eric Stock, chief of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s antitrust bureau, has some problems with the legislation. “The bill gives NuHealth a blank check to engage in a huge swath of anticompetitive activities with no oversight,” he said in the report. “Bills like this are virtually unprecedented — to single out an entity and give it broad authority to enter agreements with any number of partners.”
State Sen. Kemp Hannon (R) said the bill is necessary to keep NuHealth alive, and the state health department would supervise the legislation’s effects on the Long Island market. He also called concerns from the AG office “ultra-technical, contradictory and wrong,” according to the report.
More Articles o n Hospitals and Antitrust Law:
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Market Matters: How Major Hospital Mergers Have Avoided Antitrust Issues
Sebelius: PPACA, Antitrust Law in “Constant Tension”
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