Health Law Advisor

Background

On December 10, 2024, the Supreme Court of Ohio issued its decision in Stull v. Summa, a medical negligence case in which the defendants argued that Ohio’s statutory peer-review privilege protected from discovery the file the hospital maintained on a resident physician, which included, among other things, quality reviews and assessments of the resident’s clinical competency and professional conduct. The Supreme Court of Ohio decided one issue: Does the peer-review privilege in R.C. 2305.252 apply to a health care entity’s files about resident physicians?

This case arose from the medical treatment of head injuries that the patient sustained during a car crash. The patient and his guardians filed a medical negligence lawsuit against the hospital and its employed health care professionals, including a resident physician who participated in the patient’s care. The plaintiffs alleged that the resident improperly intubated the patient, causing the patient to sustain a brain injury.

In a quiet yet shocking announcement on February 3, 2023, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) withdrew three major antitrust policy statements (collectively, the “Statements”) that have served for years as mainstays of health care antitrust enforcement guidance. Specifically, DOJ withdrew the following statements: Department of Justice and FTC Antitrust Enforcement Policy Statements in the Health Care Area (September 15, 1993); Statements of Antitrust Enforcement Policy in Health Care (August 1, 1996); and Statement of Antitrust Enforcement Policy Regarding Accountable Care Organizations Participating in Medicare Shared Savings Program (October 20, 2011).