Public Hearings: Health Care and Competition Law and Policy

Résumé

The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC" or "Commission") announces it will hold approximately twenty-five days of hearings, beginning in February 2003, on the subject of "Health Care and Competition Law and Policy." The Commission held a two-day workshop on health care and competition law and policy on September 9-10, 2002. That workshop demonstrated the range and complexity of issues arising from the intersection of health care and competition law and policy (including consumer protection law and policy), and revealed a diversity of views on the appropriate role and priorities for the Commission and other law enforcement agencies in this important area of the economy. The Commission has determined that further inquiry will help inform the framing and implementation of competition law and policy as applied to health care. The hearings will focus in greater depth on some of the issues raised during the September 2002 workshop, and will also review and analyze the application of competition law and policy to health care more broadly. The hearings may consider a range of subjects, including, but not limited to, hospital mergers, geographic and product markets (including issues unique to r