Case Description
Idaho resolved an investigation into two health care providers in Idaho County, Kootenai Health and Syringa, through a consent decree. Idaho found that in 2017, Kootenai Health and Syringa entered into a management agreement where Kootenai Health hired and paid Syringa’s Chief Executive Officer, making the CEO an employee of Kootenai Health. This agreement provided Kootenai Health with access to significant competitively sensitive non-public information belonging to Syringa. In 2020, Kootenai Health then acquired St. Mary’s Hospital, which was Syringa’s nearest hospital competitor. In the consent decree, the attorney general’s office identified concerns about communications between Kootenai Health and Syringa that discussed limiting their competition for labor as well as potentially limiting competition in physical therapy services.
The consent decree requires, among other provisions, that Kootenai Health terminate its employment of Syringa’s CEO and that the parties terminate their existing agreements, collaborations or affiliations, except those to which the Attorney General did not object. With respect to labor, the consent decree also prohibits any agreements between the hospitals limiting competition for workers as well as the exchange of non-public information on matters such as compensation and other terms of employment.
