Bates White: Economic Consulting

Cory Capps has more than 15 years of experience as an economist specializing in industrial organization, empirical methods, and antitrust, with a focus on the healthcare industry. He has advised and offered testimony on behalf of private firms and government agencies on issues relating to market power and competition in the healthcare sector, and he has experience analyzing mergers, joint ventures, price-fixing and market allocation, and exclusionary conduct. In addition to Dr. Capps’ broad healthcare experience, he has conducted economic analysis for investigations and cases involving a variety of industries such as airlines, semiconductors, newspapers, online content providers, and agriculture. He has also provided economic consulting services to corporations on business and strategy issues. Global Competition Review selected Dr. Capps for inclusion in its International Who’s Who of Competition Economists.

Prior to joining Bates White, Dr. Capps was a Staff Economist at the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, where he concentrated on the analysis of competition in healthcare markets, including merger and civil non-merger investigations of health insurers, hospitals, physicians, nurses, home health agencies, and ambulatory surgery centers. Dr. Capps’ academic career includes professorships at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He has published widely in academic journals, including RAND Journal of Economics; Journal of Economics and Management Strategy; Journal of Health Economics; Antitrust Bulletin; Health Affairs; and Health Economics, Policy and Law.

Selected Experience

• Retained by Peter Thomas of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP to provide detailed analysis on behalf of McKesson Corporation in connection with its $2.1 billion acquisition of PSS World Medical Inc. The analysis, which was presented to the FTC, showed that the proposed merger of the two medical and surgical supplies distributors was unlikely to lead to any anticompetitive effects. After McKesson pulled and re-filed its HSR filing, the FTC granted early termination of the waiting period and approved the merger without issuing a second request for additional information to the parties.
• Retained by Mark Botti and Anthony Swisher of Akin Gump LLP to provide economic analysis of the likely competitive effects of UnitedHealth Group’s proposed acquisition of XL Health, an innovative provider of Medicare Advantage plans that focus on better coordinating care for seniors with chronic conditions. Assisted counsel for UnitedHealth and XL Health in preparing analyses that highlighted the limited direct competition between the two health insurers and the broad scope for post-merger efficiencies. The arguments were presented to the DOJ, which allowed the transaction to close without a second request.
• Retained by Art Lerner of Crowell & Moring LLP to assist Vermont-based Fletcher Allen Partners (FAP) in securing FTC clearance for FAP’s proposed affiliation with New York-based Community Providers, Inc. (CPI). Performed analyses that demonstrated a high degree of complementarity between FAP’s and CPI’s service offerings and minimal head-to-head competition. After presentation using our analyses, the FTC permitted the waiting period to expire without further investigation.
• In In re OSF Healthcare System, retained as a testifying expert on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission to analyze the competitive effects of OSF Healthcare System’s proposed acquisition of Rockford Health System in Rockford, Illinois. Provided written, deposition, and hearing testimony. After U.S. District Judge Frederick Kapala found the FTC had demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits and granted the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction, the parties abandoned the merger.
• In United States v. United Regional Health Care System, retained as testifying expert on behalf of Department of Justice to analyze the competitive effects of United Regional’s exclusionary contracts with health insurers. DOJ reached a settlement with United Regional that prohibits the hospital from entering into contracts that improperly inhibit commercial health insurers from contracting with United Regional’s competitors.
• Retained by Steve Edwards and Bob Leibenluft of Hogan Lovells LLP in Sheridan Healthcorp, Inc. v. AvMed Inc. Authored expert report and provided deposition testimony on issues of market definition, market power, and competitive effects on behalf of AvMed Health Plans, a Florida health insurer. The case settled before trial.
• Provided economic consulting support to Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines in connection with their proposed merger under investigation by the Department of Justice. Identified antitrust risks, analyzed price effects, and developed a retrospective merger analysis for the airline industry. Additional responsibilities included assisting counsel with certifying compliance for the second request.
• Member of the Economic Reference Group, Cooperation & Competition Panel, National Health Service, United Kingdom. Providing industry expertise and competition policy advice to the agency charged with overseeing the application of antitrust and consumer protection laws to the healthcare sector in the United Kingdom.

Education

PhD, Economics, Northwestern University

BA, Economics, University of Texas at Austin