Plaintiff state challenged a hospital merger that raised concerns about pricing and competition for residents of two counties in Western Pennsylvania. An eight-year agreement was reached under which 1)
There will be no arbitrary price increases for hospital and physician services; 2) Lewistown Hospital will continue to be operated as an acute care hospital for at least eight years; 3) Lewistown’s employed primary care physicians can leave Geisinger’s employ up to two years after the merger with no restrictions on their continued practice in Mifflin and Juniata Counties; 4)
Health plan contracts for Lewistown Hospital and its employed physician group will be maintained for the remainder of their terms. Future contracts will be negotiated in good faith within a range paid to similar hospitals and physicians; 5) Geisinger will continue its established practice of not prohibiting health plans from offering health care products, known as “tiered products,” in which health plans offer products to consumers with different tiers of providers based on cost and/or quality.