Methodist Health Services Corp. v. OSF Healthcare System etc.

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant-hospital’s motion for summary judgment in plaintiff-hospital’s action alleging that defendant violated Sherman Act when it entered into contract with insurance companies calling for such companies to give defendant preferred status in its health plans, where said plans precluded said companies from entering into similar contracts with plaintiff. While plaintiff argued that such contracts had impermissible antitrust effect, where said contracts covered more than half of all commercially-insured patients in relevant market area, since they precluded plaintiff from obtaining sufficiently high volume of patients that would enable it to invest in medical equipment to compete with defendant, Ct. noted that said contracts were only two to three years in length, such that defendant would be able to bid on said contracts in future. Moreover, plaintiff had similar contracts with other insurance companies and failed to show that defendant’s contracts had caused prices to rise.