FTC and DOJ issue report on competition and health care.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) recently issued a joint report to inform consumers, businesses, and policy-makers on issues affecting the cost, quality, and accessibility of health care. Culminating a 2-year project, "Improving Health Care: A Dose of Competition" reviews the role of competition and provides recommendations to improve the balance between competition and regulation in health care.

The report provides recommendations and observations on a variety of issues, including the availability of information regarding the price and quality of health-care services, cross-subsidies, physician collective bargaining, insurance mandates, hospital merger analysis, managed care organizations' bargaining power, and hospital group purchasing organizations. It also addresses such topics as consumer-driven health care, hospital mergers, quality ratings of hospitals and physicians, payment mechanisms for health care services, certificate of need regulations, licensure, allied health professionals, pharmaceutical pricing, pharmaceutical benefit managers, single-specialty hospitals, buying power in health care markets, and clinical and financial integration.

The report is based on 27 days of FTC/DOJ Joint Hearings on Health Care and Competition Law and Policy, an FTC-sponsored workshop, and independent research. The hearings gathered testimony and written comments from more than 300 participants. APTA CEO Frank Mallon testified before the FTC and DOJ on the importance of legislation and insurance policy reform that allows direct access to physical therapists and also on the adverse economic effect of physician-owned physical therapist services on consumers, third-party payers, and physical therapists. Information on self-referral amendments and Mallon's testimony can be found in chapter 1, section III, page 39 of the report, which can be found in the July 30 issue of PT Bulletin Online.