The outlook for federal antitrust enforcement remains bleak at best due to uncertainty about the new federal HSR rules, merger guidelines, and whether existing enforcement measures are.
However, the predictions for national antitrust enforcement are much clearer, especially in regards to the healthcare industry.
State antitrust enforcement officials have played a more active role in recent years, and the antitrust division of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or the Department of Justice (DOJ) is subject to potential anti-competitive conduct or business. They take the lead in investigating combinations. It can be seen at the state level. Given the local nature of healthcare delivery and the importance of the sector to the well-being of the state's citizens, it is not surprising that the healthcare industry is a special focus of national antitrust enforcement efforts. For example, in the past few years, several states have passed laws establishing state-level transaction notification systems under the federal HSR Act. These notification systems, often referred to as “baby HSR” or “mini HSR,” are intended to address parties to transactions that include transactions that fall below the HSR Act or that limit direct links to the state. You can impose a burden. Moreover, these state-level reporting systems often impose different requirements on transactional parties than the HSR Act itself.
Unlike the HSR Act, these state-level regimes may impose additional burdens and higher levels of scrutiny if one of the transactional parties is a private equity sponsor or private equity is supported. The rationale normally given for this private equity focus is that states doubt their involvement in providing private equity health care. In other words, the motivation for profit is to reduce the quality of care provided. These concerns about profit motives are also reflected in states that have or are considering legislation that reduces the quality of care, which suppresses a friendly PC model.
The rise of a national antitrust enforcement regime in the healthcare industry is not new, with states implementing or considering new laws and regulations requiring additional approvals for healthcare transactions.
These emerging state-level reporting schemes are tracked in interactive maps available here. This identifies states in the reporting system and provides a high level of direction on the types of requirements that may be imposed on healthcare transactions acquired by the system. We recommend bookmarking pages as more states continue to update their matrix as they adopt reporting systems and expand existing laws and expand new laws.
