The U.S. Justice Department has announced the establishment of the Antitrust Division’s Task Force on Health Care Monopolies and Collusion (HCMC). The HCMC is set to guide the division's enforcement strategy and policy approach in health care, including facilitating policy advocacy, investigations, and civil and criminal enforcement in health care markets when necessary.
"Every year, Americans spend trillions of dollars on health care, money that is increasingly being gobbled up by a small number of payers, providers and dominant intermediaries that have consolidated their way to power in communities across the country," said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. "Led by Katrina Rouse, the task force will identify and root out monopolies and collusive practices that increase costs, decrease quality and create single points of failure in the health care industry."
The HCMC will address competition concerns shared by patients, health care professionals, businesses and entrepreneurs. These issues include payer-provider consolidation, serial acquisitions, labor and quality of care, medical billing, health care IT services, access to and misuse of health care data among others.
The task force will comprise civil and criminal prosecutors, economists, health care industry experts, technologists, data scientists, investigators and policy advisors from across the division’s Civil, Criminal, Litigation and Policy Programs as well as the Expert Analysis Group. Their mission is to identify and address pressing antitrust problems in health care markets.
Katrina Rouse will direct the HCMC. Rouse is a seasoned antitrust prosecutor who joined the Antitrust Division in 2011. She has served various roles within the division including Chief of Defense Industrials and Aerospace Section; Assistant Chief of San Francisco Office; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney; Trial Attorney in Healthcare Consumer Products Section. Rouse holds degrees from Columbia University Stanford Law School. She has also clerked for federal judges on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
The Antitrust Division encourages public input and information from practitioners, patients, researchers, business owners and others who have direct insight into competition concerns in the health care industry. The public can share their experiences with the Task Force on Health Care Monopolies and Collusion by visiting HealthyCompetition.gov. Where appropriate, the division will refer matters to other federal and state law enforcers.
