Opinion ID: 168093
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Parties and Players

Text: 2 The Plaintiffs are forty-nine optometrists who practice along Utah's Wasatch Front 1 and their affiliated professional organizations, as well as Standard Optical Company, an eye clinic on the Wasatch Front that employs optometrists. Optometrists sell optical hardware, such as glasses and contact lenses, and have been permitted under Utah law to perform the full scope of non-surgical eye care (NSEC) since 1991. All optometrists who are parties to this suit are therapeutic optometrists, which means they are authorized to prescribe prescription drugs in addition to performing NSEC and selling hardware.
3 We begin with IHC, the largest managed care company in Utah. IHC began as an nonprofit association of hospitals in 1975. In the mid-1980s IHC vertically integrated its hospitals and began to offer prepaid health services from IHC facilities and physicians through managed care organizations. IHC's health service products — also called managed care plans — are provided through IHC's wholly-owned subsidiary, IHC Health Plans, Inc. In the mid-1990s, IHC added a physicians' division and formed IHC Health Services, Inc. That entity operates health care facilities and directly employs physicians and other health care providers. IHC and its affiliates now own and operate nineteen acute care hospitals and six surgical centers in Utah. Nine of these hospitals and five of these surgical centers are located on the Wasatch Front. 4 The Defendants also include two ophthalmologists — Corey A. Miller, M.D. and David A. Brodstein, M.D. — and their respective professional corporations. Like optometrists, ophthalmologists sell optical hardware and perform the full scope of NSEC. They therefore compete with optometrists for the sale of these goods and services. Unlike optometrists, however, ophthalmologists are licensed physicians and are authorized in Utah to perform surgical eye care (SEC) in addition to NSEC. Accordingly, ophthalmologists frequently have staff privileges at hospitals, which enables them to use the hospital to perform eye surgery. 2 5 Though not a party to this action, Eye Network of Utah (ENU) figures prominently in this case. ENU is a network of vision care providers; its membership comprises exclusively ophthalmologists under contract with an IHC managed care plan. Dr. Miller and Dr. Brodstein were managers of ENU during the period relevant to this appeal. The members of ENU, as well as all of IHC's panel ophthalmologists, are horizontally positioned competitors with respect to each other (in the provision of SEC and NSEC and in the sale of optical hardware) and with respect to optometrists (in the provision of NSEC and the sale of optical hardware).