Physician Groups - The Next Enforcement Frontier for Healthcare Provider Mergers?

The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) recent announcement that it will be undertaking a retrospective study of physician group consolidations may signal an increased focus on physician group mergers in the coming years. In this article in the May 2021 issue of the CPI Antitrust Chronicle, Steven Tenn, Omar Farooque, and Sara Razi explore how mergers involving physician groups pose unique issues and how the FTC’s approach to these transactions may be impacted by their forthcoming physician merger retrospectives. Physician mobility may have important implications regarding barriers to entry and repositioning. Physician mergers may also lead to non-standard remedies, such as the release of physicians from non-compete agreements. Vertical theories such as foreclosure of rivals through altered patient referral patterns or limited competitor access to physicians may also receive scrutiny in these types of transactions.