Antitrust Suit Against Sutter May Shine Light On Hospitals’ Closely Held Contracts With Insurers
The contracts and details about what hospitals pay to insurers have traditionally been highly confidential. Attorneys defending Sutter from the state's suit, however, have subpoenaed 50 other California hospitals, where officials are bristling at the idea of revealing such coveted information.
San Francisco Chronicle:
Suit Against Sutter Spawns Fight With Bay Area Hospitals Over Trade Secrets
In Silicon Valley, trade secrets are often thought of as a coveted technology or a patent for a lucrative device. But for hospitals, it is their confidential contracts with health insurance companies, which determine how they get paid, that they guard with their life. (Ho, 10/14)
In other news —
Sacramento Bee:
39,000 Union Employees Will Picket UC Medical Centers
The largest employee union at the University of California, AFSCME Local 3299, announced Friday that its patient-care technical workers will go on a three-day strike Oct. 23-25 at Sacramento’s UC Davis Medical Center and the four other UC health systems across the state. The job action will involve as many as 39,000 workers statewide, composed of the 15,000 members of AFSCME 3299’s patient-care unit, 9,000 from AFSCME’s service unit and 15,000 research, technical and health-care professionals represented by UPTE-CWA. (Anderson, 10/13)