Health Law

FTC WORKING WITH CMS ON ACO ISSUES BUT SAYS ACO CLINICAL INTEGRATION SHOULD PASS ANTITRUST SCRUTINY

By Greg Piche'

 It was raining here in Washington Wednesday, but the FTC is sunny about the compatibility of FTC guidance on clinical integration of health care providers and the thrust and aim of ACO healthcare delivery systems.  Marcus H. Meier, Assistant Director for theHealth Care Division, Bureau of Competition, Federal Trade Commission, said at the National Forum On Clinical Integration in Washington, D.C., that it  was likely that any organization that met the spirit and substance of a federally accepted Accountable Care Organization would also likely meet the qualifications for  clinically  integrated care organizations that would pass muster for group price negotiations.

He went on to say that a larger problem for the FTC would likely be the accumulation of market power by an ACO in a given community and the use of that leverage to demand higher prices. The jury is still out on whether ACO's will be able to garner that kind of market power and use it to manipulate rates. The FTC has been meeting with CMS to discuss options like enforcement standards and oversight to detect and hobble the rise of market power amount among ACOs. 

Full post as published by Healthcare Law Blog on November 19, 2010 (boomark / email).