Photo: J. David Ake / Getty Images
The Federal Trade Commission announced March 20 that the agency would launch a new Healthcare Task Force, with the goal of taking a more coordinated approach to enforcing industry practices that "protect American patients, healthcare workers and taxpayers."
WHY IT MATTERS
In a memo outlining the task force's creation, FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson told commission staff that it would comprise members of its Bureaus of Competition, Consumer Protection and Economics – as well as the agency's Offices of Policy Planning and Technology.
Among other goals, the Healthcare Task Force – which aims to expand its work alongside other federal agencies, such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice – would lead "targeted enforcement and advocacy initiatives" on priorities around competition, innovation, affordability and quality.
The group will be tasked with coordinating agencywide strategies on investigations, identifying new amicus and statement of interest opportunities, and highlighting new and emerging priority areas for agency enforcement across healthcare, Ferguson said.
"The industry constitutes an extraordinary eighteen percent of our country's GDP, yet too many Americans struggle to get the care they need at prices they can afford," he said. "Consolidation and anticompetitive conduct have distorted the economic landscape in many healthcare markets. The results are disturbing: higher prices, decreased quality, less access and transparency, and stifled innovation.
"Vulnerable populations including rural communities, seniors, and veterans lack access to affordable and convenient care," he added. "Anticompetitive regulations further undermine incentives to lower costs and improve the quality of care
THE LARGER TREND
As it launches the Healthcare Task Force, the FTC is highlighting some of its recent wins toward "competitive, innovative, affordable and higher-quality" healthcare industry players.
Among them, it points to the major recent settlement with Express Scripts and its affiliates, requiring increased transparency designed to lower out-of-pocket costs by as much as $7 billion over the next decade.
Ferguson also touts "action against a telehealth company that used deceptive cost and weight loss claims," and another case that secured "$145 million in consumer redress from companies it alleged misled millions of consumers seeking health insurance into purchasing indemnity, telemedicine, and health discount plans."
The FTC has long been active in the healthcare space, of course, largely focused on M&A activity, such as Amazon's $3.9 billion acquisition of One Medical in 2022.
Another chief concern for the agency has been patient privacy and cybersecurity, as with the FTC's expansive Health Breach Notification Rule, and its power to investigate Big Tech giants when they are involved in significant security incidents.
The development of this new effort is meant to bring the agency's many business, technology and policy arms into closer collaboration and coordination as the healthcare space evolves.
ON THE RECORD
The Task Force will be co-chaired by one representative from each of the Bureaus of Competition and Consumer Protection and "will include at least three members from each Commission Bureau and one member from each of the Office of Policy Planning, the Office of Technology, and the Office of General Counsel," said Ferguson, calling on the group to meet monthly and report to him quarterly.
"In standing up this Healthcare Task Force," he said, "I intend to ensure that the FTC is doing everything possible to take a comprehensive, coordinated, and effective approach to addressing existing and emerging consumer-protection and competition issues across the healthcare industry."
Mike Miliard is Executive Editor of Healthcare IT News
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.
