FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 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 agenda for the sessions of their joint hearings on health care and competition law and policy to be held during April May, 2003.
Hearings will be held April 23 - 25, 2003 and May 7 - 8, 2003 at the FTC Conference Center at 601 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Washington D.C. This set of hearings will focus on issues involving health insurers. More detailed schedules, listing specific witnesses and times for each hearing date, will be released at a later date. The schedule will be as follows: Wednesday, April 23 Health Insurance Monopoly: Market Definition Health Insurance Monopoly: Competitive Effects Thursday,April 24 Health Insurance Monopoly: Entry and Efficiencies Health Insurance Monopsony: Market Definition Friday, April 25 Health Insurance Monopsony: Competitive Effects Health Insurance Monopsony: Competitive Effects Wednesday, May 7 Health Insurance/Providers: Countervailing Market Power Most Favored Nation Clauses Thursday, May 8 Physician Hospital Organizations The subsequent set of hearings will be held May 21 - 23, 2003 and May 29 30, 2003 at the FTC Conference Center at 601 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Washington D.C. This set of hearings will focus on quality and consumer information. The schedule will be as follows: Wednesday, May 21 Quality and Consumer Information: Overview Quality and Consumer Information: Overview Thursday, May 22 Quality and Consumer Information: Hospitals Quality and Consumer Information: Hospitals Friday, May 23 Quality and Consumer Information: Physicians Quality and Consumer Information: Physicians Thursday, May 29 Quality and Consumer Protection: Market Entry Quality and Consumer Protection: Market Entry Friday, May 30 Financing Design/Consumer Information Issues Information and Advertising 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. 03-186
Source: US Department of Justice
