The Federal Trade Commission plans to probe the impact of physician group mergers during a busy period of consolidation for the imaging industry.
Earlier this month, FTC officials ordered six major health insurers to share data from 2015 through 2020 to help the agency understand these trends. Chairman Joseph Simons said the goal is to test their analytics tools and “strengthen our enforcement efforts” going forward.
“This data will help the FTC assess the impact of physician consolidation during this period, including physician practice mergers and hospital acquisitions of physician practices,” the commission said in a Jan. 14 news release.
Insurers targeted include Aetna, Anthem, Florida Blue, Cigna, the Health Care Service Corp. and UnitedHealthcare. They’re seeking patient-level commercial claims data for inpatient, outpatient and physician services across 15 different U.S. states. Payers have until April 20 to respond, according to a template of the letter sent to all six companies.
FTC’s Bureau of Economics will maintain its confidentiality rules when it eventually publishes the findings. The agency hopes the effort will unearth more detailed information about how M&A alters competition.
“The study results will also aid policymakers by providing important evidence documenting how mergers and acquisitions of physician groups and healthcare facilities affect the proper functioning of healthcare markets,” the announcement noted.
Just last month, the FTC approved Radiology Partners’ blockbuster acquisition of Mednax’s imaging business line, and two more big-name players in the specialty are also reportedly exploring sales. Others, such as US Radiology Specialists and the Center for Diagnostic Imaging, have remained busy adding practice partners in recent years.
For more on consolidation in imaging, you can check out this 2020 feature from Radiology Business Journal.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.