Source: http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f214400/214477.htm
Timestamp: 2014-11-23 17:37:09
Document Index: 168180378

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1', '§ 1', '§ 4', '§ 1331', '§ 1391', '§ 22']

Complaint : U.S. v. Charleston Area Medical Center, Inc.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, v. CHARLESTON AREA MEDICAL CENTER, INC., Defendant. |
| Civil Action No. 2:06-0091 Filed: 2-6-06 COMPLAINT
The United States of America, by its attorneys and acting under the direction of the
Attorney General of the United States, brings this civil antitrust action to obtain equitable relief
against Defendant Charleston Area Medical Center, Inc. (CAMC). The United States alleges as
1. CAMC operates the largest cardiac-surgery program in West Virginia, the sixth largest such program in the United States, through facilities located in the city of Charleston, Kanawha County, West Virginia. At all times relevant to the matters alleged in this complaint, HCA Inc. (HCA) owned and operated Raleigh General Hospital (Raleigh General), located in the city of Beckley, Raleigh County, West Virginia. Raleigh General is located about 55 miles south of CAMC's cardiac-surgery facilities. 2. In an April 17, 2002 memorandum of understanding (the CAMC-HCA MOU), CAMC persuaded HCA to agree not to develop a competing cardiac-surgery program at Raleigh General. The CAMC-HCA MOU unreasonably restrained competition to the detriment of consumers by effectively ensuring that one of the most significant potential competitors in southern West Virginia would not compete with CAMC to provide cardiac-surgery services. The United States, through this suit, asks this court to enjoin the defendant from enforcing the anticompetitive provisions of the CAMC-HCA MOU and taking other actions that would restrain competition and injure consumers in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1. II. DEFENDANT
3. Charleston Area Medical Center, Inc. (CAMC) is a nonprofit corporation, organized and existing under the laws of the State of West Virginia, with its headquarters in Charleston, Kanawha County, West Virginia. CAMC owns and operates a 913-bed, tertiary, regional referral, teaching medical center located in Charleston, West Virginia. CAMC transacts business and offers health-care services to patients located in the Southern District of West Virginia. III. JURISDICTION AND VENUE 4. The United States brings this action to prevent and restrain Defendant from continuing to violate Section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1. The Court has subject-matter jurisdiction over this action pursuant to 15 U.S.C. § 4 and 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1337, and 1345. 5. Defendant transacts business and has committed the unlawful act at issue in West Virginia. Consequently, this Court has jurisdiction over Defendants, and venue is proper in this District pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1391(c) and 15 U.S.C. § 22. IV. EFFECTS ON INTERSTATE COMMERCE
6. CAMC provides health-care services to individuals who reside outside of West Virginia. In addition, it contracts with managed-care and health-insurance providers located outside West Virginia to be included in their networks. These individuals and businesses remit substantial payments to CAMC. CAMC is engaged in, and its activities substantially affect, interstate commerce.
V. WEST VIRGINIA'S CERTIFICATE-OF-NEED STANDARDS
7. The State of West Virginia requires that a hospital obtain a certificate of need ("CON") from the West Virginia Health Care Authority before a hospital may provide cardiac-surgery services. The West Virginia Health Care Authority was formerly known as the West Virginia Health Care Cost Review Authority (collectively, "WVHCA"). 8. On February 22, 2002, West Virginia revised the state standards for qualifying for a cardiac-surgery CON. These new standards (the "February 2002 standards") made it easier for hospitals to qualify for a cardiac-surgery CON by lowering the minimum number of medical procedures that a hospital needed to demonstrate that it had performed or would perform.
9. The February 2002 standards were structured in a way such that the WVHCA would most likely approve only one location for a cardiac-surgery program in a "Southern West Virginia region" defined to consist of six counties: McDowell, Mercer, Monroe, Raleigh, Summers, and Wyoming Counties. In February 2002, no hospital from this region competed against CAMC in offering cardiac-surgery services.
10. Under the February 2002 standards, the likely location of a new cardiac-surgery program in the Southern West Virginia region was one of Raleigh General, Princeton Community Hospital Association, Inc. ("Princeton Community Hospital"), or Bluefield Regional Medical Center, Inc. ("BRMC"). Princeton Community Hospital is located in Princeton, Mercer County, West Virginia, about 95 miles south of CAMC. BRMC is located in Bluefield, Mercer County, West Virginia about 105 miles south of CAMC. VI. CAMC PERSUADES HCA NOT