HCA Healthcare Faces Antitrust Suit for Alleged Surgery Monopoly

HCA Healthcare Inc., one of the world’s largest for-profit hospital chains, is facing federal antitrust litigation in Tampa, Fla., over claims that it’s cornering the orthopedic surgery market in nearby Sarasota as part of a nationwide scheme to build one regional monopoly at a time.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, alleges a pattern by HCA of forming bogus “partnerships” with an area’s largest surgical practices for the fraudulent purpose of improving its own market position at their expense by intentionally running into the ground jointly operated surgery centers.

“After assuming total control of the partnership and surgery center,” HCA “deliberately ...