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After vowing to tackle consolidation in the health care industry, the Federal Trade Commission filed an antitrust lawsuit on Thursday that challenged the growing practice of private-equity firms backing companies that amass medical practices and dominate local markets. The suit targeted a large doctors’ group that operates anesthesia practices in several states, claiming the group and the private equity firm advising and financing it were consolidating doctors’ groups in Texas so they could raise prices and increase their profits. (Abelson and Sanger-Katz, 9/21)

The FTC filed a complaint Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas alleging that the company created a monopoly by buying up nearly every large anesthesia practice in Texas, made price-setting agreements with remaining independent practices and struck a deal with an unnamed competitor to keep it out of the market. The agency seeks, in part, a permanent injunction preventing any alleged anticompetitive conduct. (Kacik, 9/21)

“Thanks to its anticompetitive conduct, USAP has been able to extract monopoly profits while simultaneously growing its monopoly power,” the FTC said in its civil complaint, filed in federal court in the Southern District of Texas in Houston. “This conduct has resulted in egregious price increases for patients and their employers, on the order of tens of millions of dollars or more each year.” (Morgenson, 9/21)

"The FTC’s civil complaint is based on flawed legal theories and a lack of medical understanding about anesthesia, our patient-oriented business model, and our level of care for patients in Texas,” Dr. Derek Schoppa, a practicing USAP Physician in Texas and a USAP Board member, said. Another USAP physician and board member said he was confident the company would prevail in court. Welsh, Carson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Sisco, 9/21)