DaVita Inc., Tenet Healthcare Corp., and UnitedHealth Group Inc. affiliates must face antitrust litigation over an alleged “no poach” pact that barred them from recruiting one another’s senior executives, though UnitedHealth itself doesn’t have to defend the case, a federal judge in Chicago ruled.
Bloomberg Law reports that Judge Andrea R. Wood let the proposed class action move forward Monday, saying it offered enough evidence to make it plausible there was an “overarching” conspiracy among DaVita, subsidiaries of Tenet and UnitedHealth. However, the judge also ruled UnitedHealth is not directly liable for a subsidiary’s actions.
The plaintiffs allege the defendants engaged in an antitrust conspiracy between 2010 and 2019 that involved reducing their employees’ compensation by agreeing not to solicit or hire each other’s employees unless the worker had already informed their existing employer that they were looking for a new job. The defendants deny there was a conspiracy. Read more.
