Getting the Deal Through: Navigating Antitrust Scrutiny of Health System Deals and Beyond

According to a new report by the Health Care Cost Institute, nearly three-quarters of 112 metropolitan areas across 43 states have “highly concentrated” hospital markets—showing a rise of such areas from 67% in 2012 to 72% in 2016. And in today’s regulatory environment, this trend shows no sign of deceleration as health systems grapple with reimbursement, cost and other mission critical pressures.

This M&A activity is set against a backdrop of intensive antitrust scrutiny. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and often state attorneys general reviews can be challenging from a time and resource perspective. Join McDermott’s healthcare antitrust team for a webinar in which they’ll discuss and offer insight on what health systems and other industry participants can do to best position their deal for review. Topics include first-hand observations on various government practices, including:

• Greater willingness to investigate discrete individual overlapping service lines and increasingly narrow geographic areas;
• Growing reliance on econometric tools and economic analysis in their reviews;
• Analytical approach toward markets where narrow and tiered networks are on the rise; and
• Assessment of how local ACOs or CINs may factor into competitive effects analysis of a health system merger.