Credit: piai/Adobe Stock
The Federal Trade Commission is creating a new Healthcare Task Force.
The new task force will help coordinate federal efforts to "protect the American people from unfair or deceptive practices and unfair methods of competition," FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a memorandum announcing the task force launch.
"We must remain vigilant in policing unlawful business practices in the health care space," Ferguson said.
The task force will include representatives from the FTC's own Bureau of Competition, Bureau of Consumer Protection and Office of Technology, and it will seek to work with officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Justice Department, Ferguson said.
He cited the FTC's recent settlement over insulin prices with Express Scripts and actions against deceptive health plan marketers as examples of actions the FTC has taken in connection with health care in the past year.
What it means: In the past, the federal government has prosecuted some health insurers and health care providers over allegations involving the commercial health insurance market, but they have tended to focus on violations of the laws protecting the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
The new scope of the new FTC task force suggests that it could focus more on concerns that affect self-insured and fully insured employer-sponsored health plans.
The history: The administration of President Donald Trump brought in Abigail Slater, a top antitrust lawyer, to service as the head of the Justice Department's antitrust division. She set up a health care competition task force there, and the task force held a series of public meetings to hear from members of the public and interested parties about obstacles to competition in the U.S. prescription drug market.
Slater left her post in February. The Justice Department has not announced major antitrust actions based on the work of the health care antitrust meetings.
The new FTC task force could now end up taking the lead in federal health care and health insurance actions.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.