A federal grand jury in Las Vegas returned an indictment March 15, 2023, charging a healthcare staffing executive with conspiring to fix the wages of Las Vegas nurses, in violation of the Sherman Act. According to the one-count felony indictment, the defendant held executive positions at three different home health agencies. For each company, he oversaw recruitment, hiring, retention, and assignments of nurses and other healthcare staff.
The executive and other unnamed co-conspirators are charged with agreeing to suppress and eliminate competition for the services of nurses between March 2016 and May 2019. Specifically, he and his co-conspirators are charged with participating in a series of meetings and communications to fix wages of nurses.
A violation of the Sherman Act carries a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for individuals and a maximum penalty of a $100 million fine for corporations. The maximum fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by victims if either amount is greater than the statutory maximum.
“Wage fixing is a crime that deprives workers of hard-earned wages,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The Antitrust Division will be vigilant in protecting workers.”
Compliance Perspective
Issue
The Sherman Antitrust Act outlaws all contracts, combinations, and conspiracies that unreasonably restrain interstate and foreign trade. This includes agreements among competitors to fix prices, rig bids, and allocate customers, which are punishable as criminal felonies. The Sherman Act also makes it a crime to monopolize any part of interstate commerce. An unlawful monopoly exists when one firm controls the market for a product or service, and it has obtained that market power, not because its product or service is superior to others, but by suppressing competition with anticompetitive conduct. Conflicts of interest can occur when an employee or an employee’s immediate family member is in a position to influence the company’s business decision or outside concern. They can also occur when an employee serves as director, officer, employee, or representative of a competing organization or an organization which has a current or prospective business relationship with the company.
Discussion Points
- Review policies and procedures addressing conflict of interest for personnel employed by the facility who could potentially use their position to unethically engage in price fixing or collusion.
- Train staff to be aware of and report to their supervisor or through the Hotline any suspected incident where a staff member might be using his or her position to engage in price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act or otherwise violating conflict of interest policies.
- Periodically audit to ensure staff do not work for, consult with, or have an independent business relationship with any of the facility’s service providers, vendors, competitors, or third-party payers that has not been voluntarily disclosed and/or that violates the law.
*This news alert has been prepared by Med-Net Concepts, LLC for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal advice.*
