Posts tagged Antitrust.
Blogs
Clock 9 minute read

State governments are increasingly entering the field of health care market oversight and enforcement. In what was once an issue typically left to the federal government, state governments are looking for ways to regulate market activity in the health care industry as a way to stem increases in health care costs. Late May brought yet another example of what the future may offer in this regard.

Blogs
Clock less than a minute

In this episode of the Diagnosing Health Care Podcast: After nearly two years of combined efforts from the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, the agencies jointly issued much-anticipated merger guidelines identifying the procedures and enforcement practices they will apply for evaluating potential mergers.

What might these changes mean for hospitals, health systems, and other stakeholders in the health care industry?

On this episode, Epstein Becker Green attorneys Trish Wagner, John Steren, Jeremy Morris, and Dan Fahey discuss some of the key changes in the finalized antitrust merger guidelines and what these guidelines mean for the agencies' approach to enforcement.

Blogs
Clock 8 minute read

In a quiet yet shocking announcement on February 3, 2023, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) withdrew three major antitrust policy statements (collectively, the “Statements”) that have served for years as mainstays of health care antitrust enforcement guidance. Specifically, DOJ withdrew the following statements: Department of Justice and FTC Antitrust Enforcement Policy Statements in the Health Care Area (September 15, 1993); Statements of Antitrust Enforcement Policy in Health Care (August 1, 1996); and Statement of Antitrust Enforcement Policy Regarding Accountable Care Organizations Participating in Medicare Shared Savings Program (October 20, 2011).

Blogs
Clock less than a minute

In this episode of the Diagnosing Health Care Podcast:  We’re beginning to see how mergers and acquisitions in the hospital industry are being impacted by President Biden’s executive order promoting competition in the American economy. The Federal Trade Commission recently announced policy changes, and the Department of Justice has been asked to consider policy changes, that boards of directors and C-suite officers must take into account when weighing transactions.

Special guest Dr. Subramaniam (Subbu) Ramanarayanan, Managing Director at NERA Economic Consulting ...

Blogs
Clock 2 minute read

The state-action antitrust exemption grew out of the 1943 decision of Parker v. Brown, 317 U.S. 341 (1943), in which the Supreme Court explained that “nothing in the language of the Sherman Act or in its history suggests that its purpose was to restrain a state or its officers or agents from activities directed by its legislatures.”  And, relying on principles of federalism, the Supreme Court gave deference to the state as a sovereign body.

Subsequent decisions expanded the reach of state-action to state and local governmental agencies (including counties and municipalities ...

Blogs
Clock 2 minute read

The Federal Trade Commission's ("FTC") recently submitted Congressional Budget Justification and Annual Performance Plan and Report contains helpful insight into the FTC's focus and expectations for the coming fiscal year.  Of particular note, is a slight shift of funds from activities designed to "protect consumers" to activities intended to "promote competition."  High on the FTC's list of actions designed to promote competition is continued scrutiny of the health care industry.  And to that end, the FTC reiterated its intention to, among other things:

Take action against ...

Blogs
Clock 3 minute read

The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice ("Antitrust Division") released their respective year-end reviews highlighted by aggressive enforcement in the health care industry. The FTC, in particular, indicated that 47% of its enforcement actions during calendar year 2016 took place in the health care industry (including pharmaceuticals and medical devices). Of note were successful challenges to hospital mergers in Pennsylvania (Penn State Hershey Medical Center and Pinnacle Health System), and Illinois (Advocate Health ...

Blogs
Clock 3 minute read

Recently, Judge Robert T. Conrad, Jr. of the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina (Charlotte Division), rejected efforts by The Charlotte- Mecklenberg Hospital Authority, doing business as the Carolinas Health Care System ("CHS"), to dismiss, at the pleadings stage, a complaint filed by the United States' Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, and the State of North Carolina, asserting that CHS's anti-steering provisions in its payer contracts unreasonably restrain trade in violation of section 1 of the Sherman Act. Recognizing the ...

Blogs
Clock 4 minute read

West Virginia recently took a bold step to set the stage to shield an in-state hospital merger from further antitrust scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).  Certain healthcare stakeholders are likely watching these developments with some excitement and with some thought toward pursing similar initiatives in their respective states.  Although this may have some positive effects for healthcare mergers (depending upon one's point of view) it is not altogether clear that state review processes that might shield a merger from federal antitrust enforcement will necessarily ...

Blogs
Clock 4 minute read

On October 26, 2015, the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") and the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") (collectively the "Agencies") issued a joint statement to the Virginia Certificate of Public Need ("COPN") Work Group encouraging the Work Group and the Virginia General Assembly to repeal or restrict the state's certificate of need process.  The Virginia COPN Work Group was tasked by the Virginia General Assembly to review the current COPN process and recommend any changes that should be made to it.

Thirty-six states currently maintain some form of ...

Blogs
Clock 3 minute read

With the untimely passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, perhaps the best known and most controversial Justice on the Court, commentators, including this one, have been called upon to assess his legacy – both immediate and long term – in various areas of the law.

Justice Scalia was not known primarily as an antitrust judge and scholar. Indeed, in his confirmation hearing for the Court, he joked about what he saw as the incoherent nature of much of antitrust analysis. What he was best known for, of course, is his method of analysis of statutes and the Constitution: a literal ...

Blogs
Clock 4 minute read

On December 14, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas denied the Texas Medical Board's ("TMB") motion to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit brought by Teladoc, one of the nation's largest providers of telehealth services.[1]  Teladoc sued the TMB in April 2015, challenging a rule requiring a face-to-face visit before a physician can issue a prescription to a patient.  Following two recent Supreme Court cases stringently applying the state action doctrine, this case demonstrates the latest of the continued trend where state-sanctioned boards of market ...

Blogs
Clock 3 minute read

Although not the only factor, government payment reform initiatives in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are widely perceived as driving health care market consolidation.  Perhaps more significantly than mergers between hospitals, the ACA has created new interest in mergers across service lines (as reported herehere, and here).  Hospitals, physician groups, outpatient centers, post-acute providers, and even insurance carriers are combining with each other in all sorts of ways and at an accelerating pace. Depending on who you talk to in government,  this activity is (1)  paving the ...

Blogs
Clock less than a minute

by Patricia M. Wagner and Ross K. Friedberg

On April 19, 2011, the “Proposed Statement of Antitrust Enforcement Policy Regarding Accountable Care Organizations Participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program” (“Proposed Statement”) was published in the Federal Register. As noted in the Proposed Statement, the antitrust enforcement agencies (the Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission issued the Proposed Statement in response to a perceived preference by potential accountable care organization (“ACO”) participants to ...

Search This Blog

Blog Editors

Recent Updates

Related Services

Topics

Archives

Jump to Page

Subscribe

Sign up to receive an email notification when new Health Law Advisor posts are published:

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.