A US-based medical technology company recently purchased by health care giant Baxter is facing an antitrust lawsuit brought by a rival that alleges it has a “stranglehold” on the hospital bed market.
In the federal lawsuit filed in Chicago, hospital bed-maker Linet alleges Hillrom, the main provider of hospital beds in the US, used “anti-competitive” practices to slow Linet’s growth in the US market, including “coercing” hospital administrators into locking entire health systems into long-term agreements.
Hillrom, which the lawsuit calls a “serial abuser of antitrust laws,” makes up at least 70% of standard, intensive care and birthing beds installed in US hospitals, according to the complaint.
“As COVID-19 cases and new variants continue to spread across the country, hospitals are overwhelmed and, in some areas, lack the beds necessary to treat critically ill patients, thereby creating an unprecedented spike in demand for the resources needed to save patients’ lives,” Linet Americas, a US-based part of European company Linet Group, alleges in the lawsuit. “In the middle of this public health crisis stands Hillrom, the dominant supplier of hospital beds in the US.”
Hillrom was recently acquired by Deerfield-based Baxter International for $10.5 billion, plus the assumption of Hillrom’s debt. Baxter employed about 50,000 people globally before the acquisition. The lawsuit does not name Baxter as a defendant but alleges the merger, which closed this month, “bolsters Hillrom’s ability to steamroll competition.”
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