Fisher v. Aurora Health Care, Inc. (Summary)

ANTITRUST

Fisher v. Aurora Health Care, Inc., No. 13-2752 (7^th Cir. Mar. 11, 2014)

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a physician’s claims that a health care provider engaged in anticompetitive practices by eliminating independent physicians from its medical staff, thereby violating Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. The physician had been working for the health care provider for nearly a decade, when the provider changed its policy and required all medical staff, including independent physicians, to be on call 24/7. The provider informed the physician that unless he agreed to the 24/7 call coverage, he would not be able to renew his medical staff privileges. The physician sued the provider after it refused to renew his medical staff privileges, claiming that his exclusion was part of the provider’s anticompetitive conspiracy to exclude independent physicians from the hospital.

The court found that the physician, as an independent contractor, is not the person that can most efficiently bring this claim to fruition, and thereby lacked antitrust standing. The court further found that the physician could not establish that antitrust laws recognize the injury that arises from the loss of medical services provided by independent physicians. The court finally reasoned that the physician’s argument is tenuous because he has staffing privileges at other medical facilities in the area.