The Illinois legislature lately handed new antitrust laws (“HB2222”) that can require advance discover to the Legal professional Basic for well being care services and well being care supplier entities participating in sure lined transactions. If signed by the Governor, the brand new laws will go into impact January 1, 2024. 

HB2222 would supply the Legal professional Basic with discover of all materials well being care facility transactions in Illinois, so-called “lined transactions”. A lined transaction, as outlined in HB2222, is any merger, acquisition, or contracting affiliation between two or extra well being care services domiciled in Illinois not beforehand beneath frequent possession or contracting affiliation. A lined transaction would additionally embody any of the above between an Illinois well being care facility and an out-of-state well being care facility that generates $10,000,000 or extra in annual income from Illinois sufferers. Well being care services which are social gathering to a lined transaction can be required to offer discover of a lined transaction to the Legal professional Basic a minimum of thirty days previous to the transaction closing or efficient date. The Legal professional Basic might request further info, and if that’s the case the transaction might not proceed till 30 days after the events have complied with mentioned request.

HB2222 is meant to complement the federal Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Enhancements Act of 1976 (15 USC 18a) (“Hart-Scott-Rodino Act”) by requiring discover of transactions that aren’t reportable beneath the thresholds set by the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, as a result of in contrast to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, there aren’t any minimal transaction worth thresholds beneath HB2222. Moreover, HB2222 would require well being care services and supplier entities to offer a replica of any filings made pursuant to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act to the Legal professional Basic, which is able to fulfill the discover necessities inside HB2222.  

Failure to adjust to any provision of HB2222 will depart events to the transaction topic to a civil penalty as much as $500 per day for every day the social gathering stays in violation of the laws. Additional, the Legal professional Basic might apply for a short lived restraining order or injunction to ban the well being care facility from continued noncompliance with HB2222. 

Given the breadth of this new invoice, coupled with the potential dangers of non-compliance, well being care services and supplier entities have to be conscious of its notification necessities when coming into right into a lined transaction. 

Jennifer Pike and Catherine Feorene are members of Thompson Coburn’s Well being Regulation Apply Group.