Competition In Healthcare

Competition in health care markets benefits consumers because it helps contain costs, improve quality, and encourage innovation. The Federal Trade Commission's job as a law enforcer is to stop firms from engaging in anticompetitive conduct that harms consumers. The agency also provides guidance to market participants - including physicians and other health professionals, hospitals and other institutional providers, pharmaceutical companies and other sellers of health care products, and insurers - to help them comply with the nation's antitrust laws.
Additionally, the Commission and its staff undertake a variety of other activities to promote competition in health care. One key area is research and reports on competition issues in health care
Of course with any merger, competition and its impact has to be taken into consideration. The biggest competition with the healthcare industry is the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), they have the ability to "cease and desist" the merger. Over the years the FTC has ceased and desisted many mergers between the health care industry and hospitals mainly because of the affect the merger has had on the increase in prescription drug prices. (Timecia Brown 2011)

The most common technologies used by hospitals are wheel chairs, hospital beds, operating tables, delivery beds, examination tables, transfer trolleys, operating lights, and etc. From the firms' point of view, some of the incentives to consolidate within the healthcare industry are that it will decrease the amount of competition such as non-profit hospitals and etc. These are just a few descriptions of the healthcare industry and the firms. (Timecia Brown 2011)
Actions in Pharmaceutical Services contain summaries of more than 200 public antitrust actions that the Commission has taken involving competition enforcement in health care markets. The Overviews are categorized by antitrust issue, and discuss complaints and settlement orders, amicus briefs, and industry guidance
The FTC plays an important role in various health care markets through its mission of maintaining competition and protecting consumers. Accordingly, the Commission is holding these public events to gather information about the impact on the potential marketplace of different ways to structure an abbreviated regulatory approval pathway for follow-on biologic drugs. The Commission also seeks to explore further the competitive significance of qualitative health care information from the purchasers’