This is the first major test of Oregon’s SB 951, which forces hospital system to end illegal corporate practice arrangement

Washington, D.C. — The American Economic Liberties Project today celebrated the first major victory under Oregon’s Senate Bill 951, the state’s 2025 Corporate Practice of Medicine law, the first comprehensive update of state law to take on corporate control of medical practices. After four days of hearings in Eugene Emergency Physicians v. PeaceHealth Oregon and ApolloMD, PeaceHealth Oregon reversed course and agreed to end its arrangement with Atlanta-based ApolloMD, a corporate management company. Peacehealth signed a three-year term sheet directly with Eugene Emergency Physicians (EEP), a physician-owned group that has served Lane County emergency rooms for 35 years that brought the lawsuit.

The federal judge stated from the bench that SB 951 was a strong law specifically designed to prohibit the kind of corporate arrangements at issue in the case. The agreement is the first major test of Oregon’s SB 951, which was signed into law in June 2025 to close loopholes that have allowed private equity firms, insurance conglomerates, and other corporate groups to functionally control medical practices while technically complying with state corporate practice of medicine prohibitions.

“This is a win both for our clients and for enforcing Oregon’s SB 951,” said Economic Liberties Senior Fellow Hayden Rooke-Ley, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the case. “For years, corporate entities have used the ‘friendly physician’ scheme to functionally control medical practices through a management company while skirting state corporate practice of medicine laws. Oregon’s law closes that loophole, and this lawsuit proves it works. Other states should follow Oregon’s lead.”

The settlement comes as Economic Liberties prepares to release a new report this Thursday, “Out of Practice: How Capital Costs and Corporate Power Are Destroying Independent Medicine,” by Senior Fellow Olivia Webb Kosloff. The paper documents how financial pressures, insurer consolidation, and limited capital access push physicians out of independent practice and into corporate ownership structures. State-level CPOM enforcement is among the structural reforms the paper calls for.

Economic Liberties has long advocated for breaking up Big Medicine and supporting state-level reforms that protect clinical practice from corporate control. Oregon’s law and this lawsuit provide a model for what is possible for other states.

The American Economic Liberties Project (AELP) works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.