¶ … government's anti-trust regulations in the case of PeaceHealth, a non-profit health system that operates several hospitals in the Pacific Northwest. PeaceHealth, based in Bellevue, has steadily acquired several rural hospitals in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. Because of its broad network, PeaceHealth has become the object of government anti-trust legislation.
In 2002, the Oregon-based McKenzie-Willamette Hospital filed an anti-trust lawsuit against PeaceHealth. McKenzie-Willamette claimed that Peacehealth gave regional insurers deep discounts and different rates for the same services. This practice involved healthcare insurance companies like Providence Health Care Plan and Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield. According to the McKenzie-Willamette, Peacehealth cut its rates for Regence, in return for the removal of McKenzie-Willamette from Regence's preferred provider list. Similarly, Peacehealth's discounted rates for HMO services resulted in the removal of McKenzie-Willamette from Providence's list of preferred healthcare providers (Harwood 2004).
In the anti-trust lawsuit, McKenzie-Willamette charged that its patient visits declined as a result of PeaceHealth's actions. Additionally, McKenzie-Willamette produced documents showing that PeaceHealth threatened to raise Blue Cross Blue Shield's PPP rate by 14%, if McKenzie-Willamette was admitted to the...
AP Wire. (8 Mar 2005) "Anti - Monopoly Agency Rules Against Intel. The New York Times. Business News. Retrieved 8 Mar 2005 at http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Japan-Intel.html One of the central concerns regarding government regulation of businesses and the establishment of monopolies is to protect the consumer by creating an open sphere of market competition. But what of a marketplace where a non-sanctioned monopoly has ensued where the consumer is not being unduly harmed?
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