Hospital system, cardiology groups face conspiracy charges

The complaint in Minnesota alleges that the system and the physicians are planning to merge, while the health care groups say it's a misunderstanding.

By Mike Norbut, AMNews staff. Feb. 21, 2005.

The Minnesota attorney general has charged a hospital system with attempting to create an anticompetitive merger with two Twin Cities cardiology groups, but the health care groups say that their intentions have been misunderstood.

The complaint, filed by Attorney General Mike Hatch, accuses Minneapolis-based Allina Hospitals & Clinics -- and names St. Paul Heart Clinic and Metropolitan Cardiology Consultants as "co-conspirators" -- of "engaging in an ongoing conspiracy to monopolize the market for cardiology services," in violation of state antitrust laws.

"If [Allina] is able to obtain control over [St. Paul Heart Clinic and Metropolitan Cardiology Consultants], it will have the ability to control the direction of referrals made by its employed cardiologists for cardiology services and will have dramatically increased its bargaining power with third-party payers in negotiating contracts for the provision of cardiology services in the Twin Cities area," the complaint reads.

Allina and the physician groups, however, say they are not discussing a possible merger. They began merger talks last year but ended them when confronted with the state's antitrust concerns.

In a letter to referring physicians, St. Paul Heart Clinic asserted that merger talks never even went so far as to discuss economic interests, and no official offers had ever been made by Allina.

St. Paul doctors "have never received any offer of employment, salary or income guarantees from Allina," the letter states.