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The Federal Trade Commission has approved a proposed divestiture by Virginia-based health care company Carilion Clinic. Under a December 2009 settlement with the FTC, Carilion must divest a medical imaging center and an outpatient surgical center in Roanoke, Virginia, to FTC-approved buyers. That settlement resolves charges that Carilion’s ac.

quisitions of the centers were illegal and anticompetitive. Divesting the two centers to new competitors will restore the competition lost through Carilion’s acquisitions. Carilion has requested, and the FTC has approved, the sale of one of the clinics – The Center for Surgical Excellence – to Fairlawn Surgery Center, LLC to satisfy, in part, its requirements under the Order. Carilion still is required to divest the Center for Advanced Imaging.

The FTC vote approving Carilion’s application was 4-0. (FTC Docket No. C-9338; the staff contact is Roberta S. Baruch, Bureau of Competition, 202-326-2861; see press release dated October 7, 2009, at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/carilion.shtm.)

Copies of the documents mentioned in this release are available from the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP.

(FYI 13.2010.wpd)