Nevada AG files antitrust lawsuit against health care merger

The Associated Press/KLAS-TV in Las Vegas: "The Nevada attorney general's office has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against a $3.1 billion health care merger it says would reduce competition for psychiatric care in Las Vegas. ... The lawsuit is aimed at a proposed merger between Universal Health Services Inc. and Psychiatric Solutions Inc." that would give the merged firm "control of roughly 70 percent of the Las Vegas psychiatric care market" unless Psychiatric Solutions sells two local hospitals (11/15).

Cincinnati Enquirer: St. Elizabeth Physicians, a health care network that is "part of Northern Kentucky's dominant hospital company, has purchased two more cardiology groups, Northern Kentucky Heart and Cardiology Associates, it said Monday. ... St. Elizabeth will now employ nearly 180 doctors, about 110 of them primary-care doctors. The purchases further consolidate medical care in Northern Kentucky, where the company holds a near-monopoly position since it swallowed rival St. Luke Hospitals two years ago. It owns nearly all the primary-care practices and hospital care. But St. Elizabeth says private specialist groups are asking to join the network because of the rising costs of being independent (Peale, 11/15).