Providers sue Philips for cutting them off 

PHILADELPHIA – Dynamic Healthcare Services and Hometown Oxygen Pittsburgh on July 15 filed a lawsuit against Philips Respironics, DeLage Landen Financial Services and Philips Medical Capital for cutting off access to financing and leasing programs that the providers say are necessary for them to compete. 

According to the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania: 

• Prior to the Philips recall, DHS purchased thousands of respiratory devices from Respironics, financing those purchases through PMC. After the recall, however, the company was unable to monetize its inventory of recalled devices and, therefore, unable to make payments to PMC. 

• In August of 2022, PMC declared DHS in default. 

• Respironics and PMC then shared this confidential, commercial information with DLL, which informed ResMed and HOP that it would no longer do business with HOP until DHS paid PMC for the recalled devices DHS had purchased from Respironics. 

"Defendants are engaged in an ongoing conspiracy, in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, to cut off access to financing and leasing programs necessary for respiratory device suppliers in the U.S. to compete,” the lawsuit states. “DLL and PMC used their affiliation, market power and exclusivity agreements with respiratory device manufacturers to offer 0% interest financing. Defendants then shared commercially sensitive information about their customers as part of an anticompetitive scheme to foreclose competition from other lenders and respiratory device manufacturers and raise prices for patients in the U.S.” 

DLL is the leading financier of respiratory devices in the U.S., holding about 30% market share, according to the lawsuit, and PMC is a joint venture between DLL and Philips North America and is the exclusive financier of devices manufactured by Respironics. 

DHS and HOP seek to recover all damages and obtain injunctive relief available under federal antitrust law.