The U.S. Justice Department has recently set up the Task Force on Health Care Monopolies and Collusion (HCMC) to spearhead its Antitrust Division’s enforcement strategy and policy direction in healthcare markets. The primary aim of the task force is to foster policy advocacy, investigations, as well as civil and criminal enforcement in the healthcare sector.
"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 in a press release.
As per the press release, under the guidance of Katrina Rouse—an antitrust prosecutor with over a decade's experience in the Antitrust Division—the HCMC will identify and eradicate monopolies and collusive practices. The task force will also address competition concerns expressed by patients, healthcare professionals, businesses, and entrepreneurs. These issues might encompass payer-provider consolidation, serial acquisitions, labor and quality of care matters, medical billing, healthcare IT services, as well as access to and misuse of healthcare data.
The press release further indicates that the Antitrust Division welcomes input and information from the public and participants in the healthcare market. It encourages patients, practitioners, researchers, business owners among others with "direct insight" into anticompetitive behavior in the healthcare industry to share their experiences with the HCMC at HealthyCompetition.gov.
