FTC Commissioner Julie Brill addressed attendees at the 2013
National Summit on Provider Market Power on June 11. The focus of
her remarks were on the intersection of antitrust, the Affordable
Care Act (ACA) and Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). She first
touched on the ACA. Noting the empirical evidence shows that high
concentration among health care providers has harmful competitive
effects, she was optimistic that the exchanges that will be
established as a result of the ACA will offer consumers a range of
competing, affordable health care products and will encourage
greater competition in local insurance markets.
Turning to ACOs and antitrust, she stated that the FTC is
starting to hear providers contend that the ACO program is a
justification for their (alleged) anticompetitive activity.
Providers complain that the government is "talking out of both
sides of their mouth" with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services (CMS) encouraging coordination via the ACO
