US: FTC and DoJ side with Teladoc on appeal

Teladoc’s antitrust lawsuit against the Texas Medical Board is still a long way from over, but an amicus curie brief filed this morning in the Fifth Circuit Court shows that the telemedicine company has friends in high places: namely, the US Federal Trade Commission.

A quick refresher: Teladoc sued the TMB in state court way back in April 2015, alleging that because the board was made up of practicing doctors with a financial interest in squelching telemedicine, the board’s passing of anti-telemedicine legislation constituted a violation of antitrust laws. But the medical board filed a motion asking for the suit to be dismissed on the grounds that there is, in fact, state supervision of the medical board which would make it a state agency under law and therefore immune to suit.

The judge denied the motion, the medical board appealed, and now the Fifth Circuit will rule not on the case itself, but on whether to dismiss it.

Last week a number of friend-of-the-court briefs were filed with the Fifth Circuit, the most notable being a 44-page brief from the United States and the Federal Trade Commission in support of Teladoc. In the brief, the FTC argues that, first and foremost, the appeal was inappropriate and the circuit court doesn’t have jurisdiction over the ruling. But the brief goes further.

Full Content: Kera News

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