AHA responds to DOJ, FTC anticompetitive regulation RFIs 

AHA May 23 submitted recommendations to the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission in response to the agencies’ requests for information on unnecessary or burdensome anticompetitive regulations. “[T]he U.S. health care system imposes a bewildering array of regulations on hospitals and health systems, adding significant administrative costs, disincentivizing pro-competitive arrangements, and promoting vertical consolidation of large commercial insurers to the detriment of patients and providers across the country,” AHA Deputy General Counsel Julie Rapoport Schenker wrote in the letters to the agencies. The AHA’s recommendations included addressing regulations that foster anticompetitive conduct by insurers and that limit the ability of hospitals and health systems to thrive in a competitive free market, among others. 

The RFIs follow a similar request from the Office of Management and Budget regarding deregulation, to which the AHA responded May 13.