AV&H Wins Summary Judgment in The City of New York v. Group Health Incorporated and the HIP Foundation

On May 11, 2010, Judge Richard J. Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted a motion for summary judgment in The City of New York v. Group Health Incorporated and the HIP Foundation, effectively striking down the first challenge to the new Upward Pricing Pressure (UPP) test championed by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice as a new way to test mergers before moving into official FTC/DOJ review.

The Judge noted that he is bound by precedent, not a test, and for that reason he granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment in this case.

“What was striking here, he would not even allow the proof to be put before him,” said Stephen Axinn, lead attorney on the case. “This is the first opinion that I think exists anywhere in the federal system where the upward pricing pressure test was actually under any kind of scrutiny and here the judge would not even entertain it.”

The case is The City of New York v. Group Health Incorporated, HIP Foundation Inc., and Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York, Case # 1:06-cv-13122-RJS-RLE.