St. Luke’s to pay $8.4M in legal costs to Saint Al’s and others

March 29--St. Luke's Health System has been ordered to pay $8.4 million of attorney fees and costs to Saint Alphonsus Health System, Treasure Valley Hospital and the Idaho Attorney General's Office from a 2013 antitrust lawsuit against St. Luke's over its buyout of Saltzer Medical Group in Nampa.

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ordered the payments Tuesday. St. Luke's lost the case in early 2014.

Winmill mostly rejected St. Luke's arguments that it should not have to pay all the costs. He subtracted 10 percent from the amount Saint Alphonsus, Treasure Valley Hospital and the state said they spent on the trial, because about 10 percent of their lawyers' work was not related to their legal victory. That left St. Luke's to pay $8.4 million, mostly to Saint Alphonsus.

The order pushes St. Luke's total costs from the trial beyond $25.4 million. St. Luke's had said in a separate lawsuit that it had racked up more than $17 million in other costs from the antitrust trial.

However, St. Luke's may not have to pay all that money. Winmill in January ordered St. Luke's liability insurer to cover St. Luke's trial costs. St. Luke's argued that Allied World National Assurance Co. and Darwin National Assurance Co. -- together called "Allied" in the lawsuit -- broke a contract by refusing to pay St. Luke's legal costs.

Allied is appealing.

Audrey Dutton: 208-377-6448, @IDS_Audrey

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