Policy Roundup: Week of May 23-28

Healthcare Markets and Incentives: The Administrative State Meets Market Reality

Hospital Consolidation: The Battle Over Visibility and Market Power

The current debate over hospital consolidation is increasingly becoming a debate over information. Regulators can only challenge transactions they can see, investigate, and understand. Hospitals, meanwhile, argue that transaction review requirements can become costly and burdensome. The tension is visible in the FTC’s renewed focus on healthcare competition and certificate-of-need laws described in the FTC’s new healthcare playbook, alongside hospital industry efforts to expand exemptions from premerger filing requirements discussed in the latest debate over Hart-Scott-Rodino filings.