Earlier this week, San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Curtis E.A. Karow ruled against Sutter Health, confirming allegations that the northern California healthcare giant had been abusing it’s huge market share to inflate prices. The corporation had intentionally destroyed 192 boxes of documents that attorneys and unions were hoping to use in a lawsuit against them. The lawsuit was jointly filed against Sutter by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and its Employers Benefits Trust in 2014, which represents more than 60,000 retirees, workers, and their dependents. However, this joint union-employer health plan will not be the only benefactor of this crucial antitrust ruling. The court certified the case as a class-action lawsuit in August, incorporating hundreds of other employers and self-funded health care plans to benefit from the ruling. The suit alleged that a single night stay at a Sutter Health hospital is around 38% higher than in hospitals in the more competitive Los Angeles Market.
See "Health giant Sutter destroyed evidence in crucial antitrust case over high prices, judge says", Chad Terhune, Los Angeles Times, November 17, 2017