When the Antitrust Laws May Not Allow Healthcare Providers to Pursue Merger-Specific Efficiencies—And What Healthcare Providers Can Do About It

Posted by D. Daniel Sokol

Ashley Fischer, Jeffrey Brennan, & David Marx (McDermott Will and Emery) discuss When the Antitrust Laws May Not Allow Healthcare Providers to Pursue Merger-Specific Efficiencies—And What Healthcare Providers Can Do About It.

ABSTRACT: As hospitals and health systems continue to prepare for value-based reimbursement and other reforms of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("ACA"), many independent hospitals are left wondering how they can seek to achieve meaningful efficiencies-improvements in quality and access, and reductions in cost-mandated by those reforms if the antitrust laws may not allow them to seek to achieve those efficiencies by merging with another hospital in their service area. This article explores the issue facing healthcare providers-as well as the alternatives providers may have in today's antitrust enforcement climate.