Atrium Health agrees to settle antitrust lawsuit over contract language

North Carolina-based Atrium Health reached a settlement with the Justice Department over what the DOJ called "anticompetitive steering restrictions" in contracts between its providers in the Charlotte metropolitan area and commercial health insurers. Formerly known as Carolinas HealthCare System, Atrium will resolve more than two years of civil antitrust litigation over contract provisions that blocked health insurers from promoting innovative health benefit plans and cost-effective services to consumers if a court approves the deal. That deal includes an agreement barring Atrium from seeking contract terms or taking actions that would prohibit, prevent, or penalize steering by insurers in the future. It comes less than a month after Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley called for the Federal Trade Commission to examine "potentially anticompetitive contracting practices between insurers and hospital systems" including Atrium.