{"id":2446529,"date":"2019-07-19T10:56:13","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T16:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=309715"},"modified":"2019-07-19T10:56:13","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T16:56:13","slug":"lindsey-vonns-personal-trainer-files-federal-antitrust-lawsuit-against-vail-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/lindsey-vonns-personal-trainer-files-federal-antitrust-lawsuit-against-vail-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Lindsey Vonn\u2019s personal trainer files federal antitrust lawsuit against Vail Health"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Vail physical therapist Lindsay Winninger launched Sports Rehab Consulting in 2014. In a federal antitrust lawsuit filed this week, she claims that Vail Health hospital’s actions drove her and others out of business.<\/strong>
Vail Daily file<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

EAGLE \u2014 Lindsay Winninger, the former head physical therapist for the U.S. Ski Team on the women\u2019s World Cup circuit and Lindsey Vonn\u2019s private physical therapist, has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit claiming Vail Health holds a monopoly in the regional physical therapy industry.<\/p>\n

In her federal lawsuit, Winninger alleges that Vail Health\u2019s officers and board president defamed and disparaged her and deceived others about her, which drove her firm, Sports Rehab Consulting, out of business.<\/p>\n

Vail Health\u2019s \u2018supra-competitive profits\u2019<\/h3>\n

Winninger\u2019s federal lawsuit alleges that Vail Health controls 70% of the Vail Valley\u2019s physical therapy market. That gives the hospital the \u201cmonopoly power to raise prices and exclude competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winninger alleges that Vail Health collects \u201csupra-competitive profits,\u201d from its physical therapy business, 20% to 40% above competitive market prices. That\u2019s approximately $140 per session for self-pay and more than $300 per session under an insurance contract, as opposed to the more normal rate of $65 to $120 per session, the lawsuit alleges.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to the sworn testimony of Howard Head Executive Vice President Nicolas Brown, Vail Health captured, on a gross margin basis, $22.5 million in 2017 alone,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n

That kind of money should have attracted competition but has not because of \u201cVail Health\u2019s exclusionary conduct,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n

Over the past two years, three physical therapy providers \u2014 including Winninger\u2019s Sports Rehab Consulting \u2014 have closed their Vail offices because of \u201canticompetitive market conditions created by Vail Health\u2019s exercise of its monopoly power,\u201d the lawsuit alleges.<\/p>\n

Local lawsuits<\/h3>\n

While the federal antitrust case was filed this week, an Eagle County case has been slogging its way through local courts for more than three years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In an emailed statement, Vail Health said Winninger\u2019s federal antitrust lawsuit is more of the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe complaint filed against Vail Health by Lindsey Winninger and Sports Rehab Consulting appears to largely restate many of the same baseless allegations these parties previously made in the lawsuit pending in Eagle County,\u201d Vail Health\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n

Vail Health has accused Winninger and David Cimino of taking more than 3,000 Vail Health patient files when Cimino left Vail Health to join Winninger\u2019s business, and that Winninger and Cimino solicited those patients.<\/p>\n

Winninger is adamant that those accusations are untrue. She sued Vail Health and now-former CEO Doris Kirchner in Eagle County District Court for what Winninger says are \u201cfalse\u201d and \u201cdefamatory\u201d claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cVail Health has been vigorously defending that case. Vail Health has not been served yet with this (federal antitrust) complaint and is not therefore in a position to comment further on the latest filing by plaintiffs,\u201d Vail Health\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n

Maintaining a monopoly?<\/h3>\n

Winninger\u2019s lawsuit claims that Vail Health\u2019s competitive barriers include:<\/p>\n