In Little Rock Cardiology Clinic et al. v. Baptist Health et al., Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a victory for Arkansas hospital network Baptist Health and Blue Cross health insurance affiliate, in an antitrust dispute pitting physician-owned facilities against major insurers and hospital owners. The Appeals Court upheld lower court’s dismissal of the antitrust allegations on the grounds that the complaint erroneously defined the relevant product market by how consumers pay for cardiology services, which “lacks support in both logic and law.” According to the Eighth Circuit, as a matter of law, in an antitrust claim brought by a seller, a product market cannot be limited to a single method of payment when there are other methods of payment that are acceptable to the seller.
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