FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 2003 WWW.USDOJ.GOV AT (202) 616-2777 TDD (202) 514-1888 WASHINGTON, D.C. The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission today released a detailed schedule for the sessions of their joint hearings on health care and competition law and policy to be held March 26 28, 2003. These hearings will be held at the FTC Conference Center at 601 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Washington D.C.
This set of hearings will focus on hospital-related issues. On Mar. 26, 2003, the hearings will begin with a roundtable, followed by an examination of product and geographic markets for hospitals. On Mar. 27, 2003, the hearings will focus on single-specialty hospitals and hospital contracting practices. On Mar. 28, 2003, the hearings will consider issues in litigating hospital mergers. The hearing sessions on March 26 and Mar. 27, 2003 will begin at 9:15 a.m. and finish at 5:00 p.m. The hearing session on Mar. 28, 2003 will begin at 9:15 a.m. and finish at 12:30 p.m.
The hearing session originally scheduled for Feb. 28, 2003 on the Little Rock, Arkansas market was cancelled due to inclement weather. This hearing session has been rescheduled for Apr. 11, 2003. The agencies anticipate they will release shortly a detailed schedule for the sessions of their joint hearings on health care and competition law and policy to be held April 9 11, 2003.
As noted in the Federal Register notice announcing this event, any interested person may submit written comments responsive to any of the topics to be addressed. Comments directed at a particular subject considered during a particular session of hearings must be submitted no later than 45 days after the date of that specific hearing session. Comments on broader subjects within the general scope of the hearings may be submitted at any time after the publication of this notice, but no later than Nov. 28, 2003.
Written comments should be submitted in both hard copy and electronic form. Six hard copies of each submission should be addressed to Donald S. Clark, Office of the Secretary, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. Submissions should be captioned: "Comments Regarding Hearings on Health Care and Competition Law and Policy." Electronic submissions may be sent by electronic mail to healthcare@ftc.gov. Alternatively, electronic submissions may be filed on a 3-1/2 inch computer disk with a label stating the name of the submitter and the name and version of the word processing program used to create the document.
Information about the health care hearings is available on the websites for the hearings, http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/hchearing.htm and http://www.ftc.gov/ogc/healthcarehearings/, and from the FTC's Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. 03-161
Source: US Department of Justice
