Heartland Surgical Specialty Hospital LLC v. Midwest Division, Inc., et al.
N/AOUTCOME: Settlement reached with all defendants
Todd completed the successful multi-year prosecution of a landmark Sherman Act, Section 1 antitrust lawsuit on behalf of physician-owned Heartland Surgical Specialty Hospital LLC against the largest ma ... naged care organizations and hospital systems in Kansas City. Heartland claimed that the dominant hospital systems had conspired among themselves and with the dominant managed care organizations to prevent Heartland from obtaining in-network provider contracts. Settlements occurred with certain defendants at various times in the intense multi-year litigation. After the trial court denied defendants’ motions for summary judgment on Heartland's antitrust conspiracy claims and ruled that Heartland had a viable damages claim in excess of $140,000,000 in treble damages, settlements were reached with the remaining defendants and the case was finally resolved shortly before trial. Todd was responsible for the day-to-day management of the litigation, including discovery that included more than 100 depositions and the exchange of more than three million pages of documents. Todd took or defended many of the fact and expert depositions in the case. The case was the first in the District of Kansas to utilize a stipulated e-discovery protocol to address the complex e-discovery issues in the case. Todd also had primary responsibility for the successful opposition to Defendants' motions for summary judgment and efforts to limit damages in the case. The case was reported in Modern Healthcare and The National Law Journal as well as other leading health care and legal publications and was followed closely by national health care and antitrust experts. Several published decisions from the United States District Court for the District of Kansas chronicle the litigation and the significant legal issues addressed in this landmark case.
