NorthShore-Advocate Merger Scrapped After Ruling

EVANSTON, IL — The proposed merger of NorthShore University HealthSystem and Advocate Health Care was called off for good Tuesday after a federal judge sided with anti-trust regulators on appeal.

The deal between Evanston-based NorthShore and Downers Grove-based Advocate would have created a combined health care system of 16 hospitals and the 11th largest in the country.

The Federal Trade Commission argued the combination would control more than half of the Chicago area's market and hurt patients, while the hospitals said the FTC were not properly factoring in competition, according to Reuters.

» Combined organization would have been known as Advocate Northshore Health Partners

“The FTC is delighted with today’s district court ruling, which enjoined this merger, and the parties’ subsequent decision to abandon the transaction,” said Tad Lipsky, Acting Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition in a written statement. “Advocate and NorthShore’s merger would likely have reduced the quality, and increased the cost, of health care for residents of the North Shore area of Chicago.”

Judge Jorge Alonso of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois reversed his own decision from last year when he decided against blocking the merger after the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to him.

» FTC appeals judges's decision to allow Advocate-Northshore merger to go ahead

In written statements, both health care providers said they would not appeal.

Experts disagree on whether the deal would have provided better care or lower costs to consumers, but one clear beneficiary from the conclusion of the two and a half year process is insurer Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Illinois, according to Crain's Chicago Business.

» Read more via Crain's, Reuters, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune