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Dionne Lomax, May 27, 2008
The Evanston case is a result of the Federal Trade Commission’s retrospective review of hospital mergers that was announced by then-FTC Chairman Tim Muris in 2002. The retrospective review was initiated by the FTC after both federal antitrust agencies the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the FTC Bureau of Competition lost numerous cases when challenging hospital mergers pre-consummation in federal court. In an effort to reinvigorate the Commission’s hospital merger program, the FTC announced that it intended to analyze the effects of hospital mergers in several cities across the country with an eye towards potentially challenging the consummated transactions that resulted in anticompetitive price increases. According to Chairman Muris, the effort provided the FTC with an opportunity to utilize “real-world empirical evidence, instead of hunches, guesswork, and theoretical predictions” to assess the competitive effects of hospital mergers. At the outset, Chairman Muris indicated that the Commission would “carefully consider” whether administrative litigation was appropriate, noting that whether or not there was an appropritae remedy would influence the Commission’s decision of whether to pursue litigation. Subscribers can download the entire article available in the column on the left.
