"General Electric Ordered Into Antitrust Mediation"

General Electric Ordered Into Mediation by Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in a Healthcare eCommerce Antitrust Litigation Brought by Medical Supply Chain, Inc.

(PRWEB) April 7, 2004 --The General Electric Company (GE) has been ordered into mediation by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in the antitrust lawsuit (case# 04-3075 & 04-3102)brought by Medical Supply Chain, Inc. over whether independent Web-based suppliers will be allowed to enter the 1.3 trillion dollar hospital supply market. That market is currently dominated by two powerful business combinations. One, the Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX) was founded by General Electric and several other dominant suppliers of health care products and GE remains a significant owner along with GPO giant, Premier.

The other entity, Neoforma is largely held by Healthcare Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) heavyweight Novation. Three years ago the two combinations signed a collaboration agreement effectively setting the stage for an eCommerce monopoly. Medical Supply Chain contends that the monopolistic tendencies of these two combinations drives up the cost of health care by preventing Web-based competition in the acquisition of hundreds of billions of dollars in health care products by hospitals and others. The resulting artificially inflated costs may deprive millions of Americans from access to affordable healthcare leading to the deaths of between 16 and 26 thousand uninsured and underinsured Americans annually. ###