Sutter Heath Confronts Antitrust Suit After Verdict Reversal (2)

Sutter Health will face antitrust claims in a yearslong class action alleging the company used its market power to force insurers in California to pay more for services after the Ninth Circuit reversed a 2022 jury verdict.

A majority panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said in a Tuesday order that a district court erred by failing to instruct the jury to consider Sutter’s “anticompetitive purpose” and by excluding evidence of Sutter’s conduct before 2006, five years before the specific contracts that individual and business plaintiffs alleged caused them harm were negotiated and took effect. ...