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St. Mary's Medical Center in Huntington, W. Va., and Charleston (W. Va.) Area Medical Center have agreed to settle an antitrust lawsuit accusing them of illegally coordinating marketing campaigns for various services in the markets where they compete. (Schencker, 4/14)

Consumers along the North Shore would end up paying about $45 million more a year for health care if two of the biggest Chicago-area hospital networks merged, an expert for federal antitrust regulators testified yesterday. That's based on Advocate Health Care and NorthShore University HealthSystem gaining better bargaining power at the negotiating table with insurers if they combined and created a 16-hospital system, the largest in Illinois and among the biggest in the nation. (Schorsch, 4/14)