The Illinois legislature not too long ago handed new antitrust regulation (“HB2222”) that may require advance understand to the Lawyer Basic for well being care amenities and well being care supplier entities enticing in sure coated transactions. If signed through the Governor, the brand new regulation will pass into impact January 1, 2024.
HB2222 would give you the Lawyer Basic with understand of all subject material well being care facility transactions in Illinois, so-called “coated transactions”. A coated transaction, as outlined in HB2222, is any merger, acquisition, or contracting association between two or extra well being care amenities domiciled in Illinois no longer in the past beneath commonplace possession or contracting association. A coated transaction would additionally come with any of the above between an Illinois well being care facility and an out-of-state well being care facility that generates $10,000,000 or extra in annual income from Illinois sufferers. Well being care amenities which can be birthday party to a coated transaction can be required to offer understand of a coated transaction to the Lawyer Basic no less than thirty days previous to the transaction last or efficient date. The Lawyer Basic would possibly request additional info, and if that is so the transaction won’t continue till 30 days after the events have complied with stated request.
HB2222 is meant to complement the federal Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Enhancements Act of 1976 (15 USC 18a) (“Hart-Scott-Rodino Act”) through requiring understand of transactions that don’t seem to be reportable beneath the thresholds set through the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, as a result of not like the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, there are not any minimal transaction worth thresholds beneath HB2222. Moreover, HB2222 would require well being care amenities and supplier entities to offer a duplicate of any filings made pursuant to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act to the Lawyer Basic, which is able to fulfill the awareness necessities inside HB2222.
Failure to agree to any provision of HB2222 will depart events to the transaction topic to a civil penalty as much as $500 in keeping with day for every day the birthday party stays in violation of the regulation. Additional, the Lawyer Basic would possibly practice for a brief restraining order or injunction to ban the well being care facility from endured noncompliance with HB2222.
Given the breadth of this new invoice, coupled with the prospective dangers of non-compliance, well being care amenities and supplier entities should have in mind of its notification necessities when coming into right into a coated transaction.
Jennifer Pike and Catherine Feorene are participants of Thompson Coburn’s Well being Regulation Follow Team.
