Columbus, Ohio-based OhioHealth reached an agreement June 16 with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Ohio Attorney General to end a civil antitrust lawsuit that alleged the health system used anticompetitive contract provisions to drive up healthcare costs for patients and employers in central Ohio.
As part of the settlement agreement, OhioHealth will not pay any penalties, fines or damages, according to a June 16 news release from the system. OhioHealth does not admit that there was any wrongdoing.
In February, the Justice Department sued OhioHealth, accusing the system of imposing contractual restrictions on commercial payers that prevented them from offering lower-cost, “budget-conscious” health plans. The lawsuit sought to block the system from enforcing contract provisions that restrict insurers from offering plans that provide financial incentives or information encouraging members to use competing providers. It also sought to bar the system from retaliating against insurers that attempt to introduce such plans.
OhioHealth said June 16 that the contract provisions in question date back as far as two decades and were “designed to provide protections to OhioHealth from specific insurance company practices common at the time.”
The system said that no insurer had requested that OhioHealth remove any provisions that were the focus of the lawsuit. OhioHealth added that it is choosing to resolve the lawsuit to “avoid costly and time-consuming litigation.”
The resolution comes amid increasing federal scrutiny of hospital-payer contracting. The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against New York City-based NewYork-Presbyterian in March, similarly accusing the system of stifling competition through restrictive payer contracts.
OhioHealth said its agreement with the government will be submitted to the court for approval and final judgement will be available to the public.
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