DOJ Antitrust Settlement Requires North Carolina Physician Group To Disband
Client Alert | 1 min read | 12.15.02
On December 13th, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice announced that it will require Mountain Health Care, an independent physicians organization headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, to cease its operations and dissolve. The Department said that under a proposed settlement, Mountain Health Care will cease negotiating and contracting with health care plans on behalf of its participating physicians, a practice DOJ said resulted in consumers paying increased prices to Mountain Health Care's physician members for health care services.
Click here for the DOJ complaint, stipulation to final judgment, and competitive impact statement.
According to the DOJ complaint filed in federal district court in connection with the settlement, Mountain Health Care restrained price and other forms of competition among physicians in Western North Carolina by adopting a uniform fee schedule for its physicians. Mountain Health Care agreed to contracts with managed care purchasers that incorporated the collectively set fees. These actions resulted in higher rates charged to health plans leading to higher health costs for ultimate consumers, DOJ said.
Insights
Client Alert | 7 min read | 10.29.26
On 8 October 2026, Crowell & Moring, King's College London, and the Competition Law Center at George Washington University co-hosted the 7th EU Competition Law Conference at De Warande in Brussels. Mark Meador, Commissioner at the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), delivered the opening keynote address, followed by four panels bringing together practitioners, regulators, academics, and in-house counsel to discuss the latest developments in EU, UK, and US competition law enforcement. Among other things, the panels examined algorithmic pricing; the European Commission's (Commission) new guidelines on exclusionary abuses under Article 102 TFEU (Article 102 Guidelines); the impact of dominant positions in merger reviews; and lessons from the enforcement of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act.
Client Alert | 2 min read | 10.28.26
Debriefing to Dead Briefing: How to Avoid Dismissal by Identifying “Required” Debriefings
Client Alert | 7 min read | 10.27.26
Client Alert | 5 min read | 10.27.26
The UK Defence Footprint 2026 and the Warsaw Defence Plan: Investment, Innovation and Opportunities
