Overview

• In a Sept. 5 order, U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in the Southern District of New York dismissed Particle Health’s Section 1 conspiracy, defamation and trade libel claims, but allowed monopolization, attempted monopolization and monopoly leveraging claims under Section 2, along with some state-law claims, to continue.
• The court found Particle plausibly defined a payer-platform market and alleged conduct that could hinder insurers’ access to electronic health records.
• Allegations noted by the court include cutting off customer access to Epic-stored records, prolonging approvals, disparaging Particle and manipulating dispute-resolution processes, including an instance where access would be restored if a customer ended its relationship with Particle.
• Epic denies wrongdoing, citing patient data protection and Carequality rule enforcement, and a Carequality steering committee previously found some Particle clients made improper requests and required a corrective action plan.
• The case now enters fact discovery, with Epic saying it looks forward to presenting evidence and Particle asserting the ruling is the first time antitrust claims against Epic have advanced to this stage.