{"id":152,"date":"2024-05-10T13:11:56","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T17:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/?p=152"},"modified":"2024-05-10T13:11:56","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T17:11:56","slug":"doj-announces-task-force-targeting-anticompetitive-conduct-in-health-care-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/2024\/05\/10\/doj-announces-task-force-targeting-anticompetitive-conduct-in-health-care-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ Announces Task Force Targeting Anticompetitive Conduct in Health Care Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division\u2019s newly formed Task Force on Health Care Monopolies and Collusion (HCMC) \u201cwill guide the division\u2019s enforcement strategy and policy approach in health care, including by facilitating policy advocacy, investigations, and where warranted, civil and criminal enforcement in health care markets,\u201d according to its May 9, 2024 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/assistant-attorney-general-jonathan-kanter-announces-task-force-health-care-monopolies-and\">announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The HCMC announcement came on the same day that Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter discussed DOJ\u2019s antitrust enforcement efforts with the Washington Post. In that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/washington-post-live\/2024\/05\/10\/transcript-new-antitrust-playbook-with-jonathan-kanter\/\">interview<\/a>, AAG Kanter stated that \u201c[t]he platformization of health care has resulted in multi-sided giants, intermediaries that have a coordinated stack of businesses that flow together, including payers, including providers, including PBMs, claims processing, banks.\u201d The HCMC \u201cwill identify and root out monopolies and collusive practices that increase costs, decrease quality and create single points of failure in the health care industry,\u201d according to DOJ\u2019s press release. Katrina Rouse will lead the HCMC.<\/p>\n<p>The HCMC is yet another effort in the so-called \u201cwhole-of-government\u201d approach articulated by the Biden Administration to enforce the antitrust laws, in particular with respect to the health care industry. In March, DOJ, with the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, jointly issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/2024\/03\/05\/ftc-doj-and-hhs-launch-cross-government-investigation-on-healthcare-competition\/#more-119\">Request for Information<\/a> requesting public comment on transactions in the health care space. Earlier this month, the agencies <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/justice-department-federal-trade-commission-and-department-health-and-human-services-extend\">extended<\/a> the comment period by 30 days with the new deadline being June 5, 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division\u2019s newly formed Task Force on Health Care Monopolies and Collusion (HCMC) \u201cwill guide the division\u2019s enforcement strategy and policy approach in health care, including by facilitating policy advocacy, investigations, and where warranted, civil and criminal enforcement in health care markets,\u201d according to its May 9, 2024 announcement. The &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/2024\/05\/10\/doj-announces-task-force-targeting-anticompetitive-conduct-in-health-care-industry\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;DOJ Announces Task Force Targeting Anticompetitive Conduct in Health Care Industry&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":660,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[9],"class_list":["post-152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"authors":[{"term_id":9,"user_id":660,"is_guest":0,"slug":"spmcconnell","display_name":"Sean P. McConnell","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/68\/2025\/10\/mcconnellsean-100x100.jpg","author_category":"","last_name":"McConnell","first_name":"Sean","job_title":"","user_url":"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/seanpmcconnell.html","description":"<A HREF=\"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/seanpmcconnell.html\">Read Sean's Bio<\/a>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/660"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/antitrustlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}