March 25, 2025 – Upon submission of a settlement agreement for preliminary approval by the Court, Plaintiffs and Sutter have issued the following joint press release regarding the Settlement:

“Sutter Health and Plaintiffs Djeneba Sidibe, Jerry Jankowski, Susan Hansen, David Herman, Optimum Graphics, Inc., and Johnson Pool & Spa, on behalf of themselves and a certified class of similarly situated persons, have reached a settlement of Sidibe, et al. v. Sutter Health, a class action antitrust lawsuit. The settlement resolves strongly disputed claims involving alleged conduct spanning from the late 1990s to 2020. The parties agree this settlement is what’s best for the parties, for patients and for the class, and the prospect of additional litigation is not in anyone’s interest. There is no admission of liability, and the settlement is subject to court approval.”

The settlement provides for a $228.5 million payment by defendant Sutter in exchange for the release of claims by Plaintiffs and the Class.  This news follows the announcement of an agreement in principle in March 2025. Constantine Cannon, on behalf of a California premium paying class, reached an agreement to settle this long-running healthcare antitrust case against California’s Sutter Health, one of the nation’s largest and most powerful hospital chains. The parties’ settlement is subject to Court approval.

The certified class included roughly 3 million health insurance premium payers in California with policies from Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Health Net, or United Healthcare, plans held by many insured California patients. The firm filed first in 2012 and has litigated the case for almost 13 years.

The class claimed that Sutter increased costs and forced “all or nothing” network deals for insurers by flexing its market power and making health care costs surge by over $400 million. The class also alleged that Sutter made insurers contractually agree to terms blocking plans that would direct patients to cheaper providers. Insurers were driven toward Sutter’s more costly facilities to get in-network access to the hospitals they needed.

This agreement was reached on the eve of a 4-week retrial after the rare reversal of a jury verdict by the Ninth Circuit – the second Ninth Circuit reversal achieved in this critical case.

In March 2022, following a trial, a jury sided with Sutter. The Ninth Circuit determined that the verdict was issued on a record that erroneously excluded important evidence from when the challenged restraints were first imposed and the exclusion was not harmless. (See Ninth Circuit Opinion). Such evidence included “admissions by Sutter executives, Sutter’s switch from the individual negotiating to the systemwide contracting system, Sutter’s imposition of the allegedly anticompetitive contract terms during that transition and the health plans’ objections to those terms and the switch.” The Ninth Circuit also found that the trial court’s rewriting of CACI jury instructions to excise from the jury’s consideration, the “purpose” and history of Sutter’s restraints controverted law.

Stay tuned for additional updates as they unfold.

About Constantine Cannon LLP

Constantine Cannon, with offices in New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, has deep expertise in practice areas that include antitrust and complex commercial litigation, whistleblower representation, government relations, securities and e-discovery. The firm is responsible for two of the top five antitrust settlements in U.S. history.

Constantine Cannon’s antitrust practice is internationally recognized across multiple industries including healthcare, banking, electronic payments, insurance, high tech, telecommunications, the Internet and government contracting. The firm’s Whistleblower Team has been responsible for many major successes over the past two decades, including several record recoveries for the government and the firm’s clients. In total, our representations have led to more than $1 billion in government and whistleblower recoveries, in addition to over $5 billion recovered for the firm’s other clients.

Read Constantine Cannon, Lead Class Counsel, Submits Settlement Agreement for Preliminary Approval in Sutter Health Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit at constantinecannon.com