IL practice settles antitrust suit over Medicaid refusals

A large Illinois medical practice has finalized an antitrust suit filed by the state's Attorney General that accused it of denying primary care to Medicaid patients. A judge has released Carle from the suit, filed state AG Lisa Madigan and Carle Clinic Association. The deal requires the Urbana-based practice to grow its Medicaid patient base by 2,000, to 11,850, over the coming three years.

The suit, which was filed in June 2007, had claimed that both Carle, and Champaign-based Christie Clinic were steering Medicaid patients away from primary care to more-costly emergency departments for primary care. Since both practices own hospitals, this effectively boosted their income by allowing them to collect higher ER compensation, the suit said.

While the judge involved has now released Carle from the suit, the case against Christie continues.|

To learn more about the suit:
- read this Chicago Tribune piece [1]

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IL suit says private clinics diverted poor to EDs [3]