U.S. Healthcare Business Stays Antitrust Enforcement Precedence

Representing a large portion of the American economic system, few industries in the USA have obtained extra consideration from the press, legislators, and antitrust companies than the healthcare trade—significantly lately. Current developments on the Federal Commerce Fee (“FTC”) and the Division of Justice (“DOJ”) reaffirm that healthcare stays a prime antitrust enforcement priorities in the USA.

FTC Chair Lina Khan not too long ago remarked that the company stays “dedicated to difficult illegal offers…in essential sectors of the economic system,” together with healthcare.[1] Khan’s dedication is tangible within the company’s current actions: of the six mergers the FTC has sued to dam to this point in 2022, three are within the healthcare trade.[2] Amongst them is the proposed acquisition of an unbiased New Jersey hospital by one of many largest hospital methods within the state, which the FTC alleged would—amongst different harms—depart customers in New Brunswick with a sole supplier.[3]

Each the FTC and DOJ additionally not too long ago affirmed their dedication to rooting out unilateral anticompetitive habits amongst healthcare gamers. On the ABA’s 2022 Antitrust in Healthcare Convention, Deputy Assistant Lawyer Normal Andrew Forman introduced that the division now views Part 2 enforcement as a prime precedence, citing the numerous “value, delay, and burden” that unscrupulous unilateral actors can impose on healthcare customers.[4]

These points and extra are explored within the latest version of the ABA’s Antitrust Healthcare Handbook, which offers an in depth and up-to-date remedy of antitrust points in U.S. healthcare and is out there for buy right here.

Within the 11 years for the reason that publication of the fourth version of the ABA’s Antitrust Healthcare Handbook, people and corporations within the trade have needed to grapple with important adjustments, together with new legal guidelines and laws, adjustments in managed care contracting, and quite a lot of important financial pressures. On the similar time, antitrust companies have promised to maintain up with these adjustments and proceed their strong enforcement in well being care markets.

Matters addressed within the fifth version embody:

1. Thorough antitrust overview, software of the antitrust legal guidelines to well being care and enforcement and penalties.
2. Primary ideas and ideas, together with interstate commerce, market energy, monopolization, mergers and personal actions.
3. Related markets for well being care: hospitals, doctor companies, well being plans, and so forth.
4. Pricing conduct in well being care industries, resembling price-fixing agreements, competitor exchanges and unilateral pricing conduct. 
5. Nonprice conduct in well being care industries, together with hospital medical employees privilege selections, and vertical nonprice exclusionary conduct.
6. Antitrust exemptions and immunities, resembling state motion, labor unions, and native authorities antitrust act.
7. Greatest practices for stopping and minimizing issues.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Senate Antitrust Testimony 09202022.pdf (ftc.gov) at 3.

[2] Id. at 4.

[3] See FTC Sues to Block Merger Between New Jersey Healthcare Rivals RWJBarnabas Well being and Saint Peter’s Healthcare System | Federal Commerce Fee.

[4] Deputy Assistant Lawyer Normal Andrew Forman Delivers Keynote on the ABA’s Antitrust in Healthcare Convention | OPA | Division of Justice.