Regulated industries give rise to unique antitrust problems. Any legal strategy, whether developed for litigation or ongoing business transactions, must take into account not only tenets of antitrust law, but also the interplay of antitrust principles with the legal and operational framework of the industry. Our antitrust attorneys have significant experience working with clients in highly-regulated industries, including health care.
Reed Smith’s Health Care Group includes lawyers who focus on the application of the antitrust laws to health care providers and other entities in the health care industry. The continuing interest of enforcement agencies in health care, coupled with economic pressures that providers face in an increasingly competitive market, have placed many providers and health insurers in a difficult and uncertain position. While industry responses, such as joint ventures, managed care networks and group purchasing arrangements, are increasingly appealing, the antitrust implications of participation can be complex.
Our antitrust practitioners are experienced in the problems that confront health insurers, hospitals, pharmaceutical and device manufacturers, and other health care and life sciences entities. Reed Smith attorneys represent clients in a range of antitrust matters, including hospital mergers, the creation of provider networks such as physician-hospital organizations and independent practice associations, the development of a variety of joint ventures, staff privileges cases, exclusive contracting, and the formation of and participation in managed care organizations (MCOs), PPOs and HMOs.
We represent clients with operations in the United States and in Europe and, through our network of contacts, elsewhere in the world. Our lawyers have the familiarity and credibility to guide clients through competitive contexts ranging from preventive counseling, to taking preemptive action against anticompetitive conduct of others, to achieving completion of multi-national mergers, and to litigation, arbitration or mediation of complex, multi-jurisdictional actions.
Reed Smith’s antitrust attorneys have tried and won substantial cases for plaintiffs, defendants and the United States government, and are fully aware of both the local and international dimensions of competition issues. We also provide advice on legal issues related to mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances, standards-setting activities, the Robinson-Patman Act, the National Cooperative Research Act, corporate compliance policies, trade association practices, other trade regulation matters, and domestic and international pre-merger notification requirements. Our team also routinely establishes, then monitors adherence to, procedures designed to ensure compliance with government decrees. Many of our attorneys are former federal antitrust prosecutors, and have represented clients in civil and criminal government antitrust investigations and prosecutions.