
A federal judge has dismissed an antitrust lawsuit filed last year pitting pathology groups Iowa Pathology Associates (IPA), Regional Laboratory Consultants, and Goldfinch Laboratory against one another.
Four pathologists -- Drs. Tiffani Milless, Caitlin Halverson, Renee Ellerbroek, and Jared Abbott -- had left IPA to form a competitive pathology practice, Goldfinch Laboratory. In their complaint filed in the Southern District of Iowa in May 2024, the doctors alleged unfair competition, harassment, retaliation, and discrimination from IPA and Regional Laboratory Consultants.
IPA and Regional Laboratory Consultants have denied wrongdoing and filed a motion to dismiss the case. As the Iowa Capital Dispatch explained, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger found that Goldfinch failed to define a geographic market in which consumers had no other source for pathology services. The case was dismissed on December 13, 2024.
"Even assuming central Iowa is where the defendants draw a sufficiently large portion of their business, Goldfinch has not sufficiently alleged a plausible reason why potential referral sources cannot practicably turn to alternative sources outside central Iowa," the order stated. "Goldfinch has not plausibly identified a relevant market as required to allege attempted monopolization."
Additionally, most of Goldfinch's alleged harms are not antitrust injuries, the judge ruled.
Goldfinch asserted that its ability to compete was severely undermined by the actions of the competing practices that operated as part of a joint venture.
In the order, Goodgame Ebinger clarified that some of the alleged actions, such as falsely claiming exclusive contracts to deprive competitors the ability to compete, would result in cognizable antitrust injury, the type of injury Congress intended to prevent. However, "Goldfinch is not a proper plaintiff to bring suit for the alleged injuries to pathology and dermatopathology consumers."
The Dispatch also noted that two other lawsuits are still pending: a state court lawsuit that was filed by IPA and Regional Laboratory Consultants against the four Goldfinch partners in late 2022 (which is in the final stages of litigation) and a discrimination lawsuit against IPA and Regional Laboratory Consultants that was filed by Milless and Halverson (which is expected to go to trial in August 2025).
"We continue to believe that IPA and RLC have tried in several ways to prevent Goldfinch from offering high quality, competitively priced pathology services to physicians and patients in central Iowa," Milless told LabPulse.com. "We have therefore appealed that decision. But our greatest hope is that we will be able to serve physicians without improper interference from competitors. In that regard, we are considering all of our options."