Other LanguagesAttorney General Bob Ferguson announced today that CHI Franciscan will pay up to $2.5 million to resolve a federal antitrust lawsuit Ferguson filed against the Tacoma-based non-profit health system in 2017. CHI Franciscan is also required to divest its controlling interest in an outpatient surgery center it acquired in Silverdale, restoring competition for services on the Kitsap Peninsula.
OLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson and 43 other attorneys general filed a lawsuit against Teva Pharmaceuticals, the largest generic drug manufacturer in the world, and 20 other companies for conspiring in secret to increase prices of 116 common medications, including everyday antibiotics, antidepressants, contraceptives and statins.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that, as a result of his lawsuit, St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma and seven other CHI Franciscan hospitals will forgive as much as $20 million in debt, pay $2.22 million in refunds, pay the Attorney General’s Office $2.46 million, and rehabilitate the credit of thousands of patients who qualified for charity care between 2012 and 2017 but did not receive it. CHI Franciscan entered into a legally enforceable agreement to reform its charity care practices across all eight of its acute care hospitals. Attorney General Ferguson sued St. Joseph Medical Center, but the resolution involves charity care reforms for eight CHI Franciscan hospitals and provides restitution for patients withheld charity care at all eight hospitals.
OLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s today announced that Johnson & Johnson will pay $9.9 million to avoid going to trial for misrepresentations and failure to include serious risks in the instructions and marketing materials for surgical mesh devices. Ferguson is the first state attorney general to file a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson regarding surgical mesh devices.
Today, with a bipartisan vote of 31-17 in the Washington State Senate, state legislators passed a bill prohibiting “pocket service” debt collection practices, which allow debt collectors to blindside consumers with default judgments in order to seize wages, bank account funds, or other assets.
SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that national hotel chain Motel 6 will pay $12 million to resolve his lawsuit against the company for voluntarily providing guest lists to agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a routine basis for over two years.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced the process for consumers to obtain their share of a nearly $40 million recovery. The recovery is a result of the Attorney General’s price-fixing lawsuit against seven manufacturers of cathode ray tubes, or CRTs, which is the technology common in televisions and computer monitors prior to the introduction of LCD flat screens.
OLYMPIA — Today, with a bipartisan vote of 33-12 in the Washington State Senate, the Washington State Legislature passed legislation to raise the sale age for tobacco and vapor products to 21.
SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that, in order to avoid a lawsuit, seven additional corporate chains eliminated no-poach practices nationwide, entering into legally enforceable agreements to remove the clauses from franchise contracts. The seven chains have 125 locations in Washington and more than 3,600 locations nationwide. This brings the total number of corporate chains that have signed legally binding agreements with Ferguson to 57.
SEATTLE — A King County Superior Court judge ruled that Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s case against restaurant chain Jersey Mike’s may proceed. Jersey Mike’s previously filed a motion to dismiss Ferguson’s case against the company asserting the company’s use of no-poach provisions violates antitrust provisions of the state Consumer Protection Act.