FTC/DOJ Hearings on Health Care And Competition Law and Policy

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) today released a detailed schedule for the sessions of their joint hearings on health care and competition law and policy to be held March 26-28, 2003. These hearings will be held at the FTC Conference Center at 601 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Washington DC. The Web sites for the hearings are located at http://www.ftc.gov/ogc/healthcarehearings/ and http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/hchearing.htm.

These hearings focus on hospital-related issues. On March 26, 2003, the hearings will begin with a roundtable on general hospital-related issues, followed by an examination of product and geographic markets for hospitals. On March 27, 2003, the hearings will focus on single-specialty hospitals and hospital contracting practices. On March 28, 2003, the hearings will focus on issues in litigating hospital mergers. The hearing sessions on March 26 and March 27, 2003 will commence at 9:15 a.m. and finish at 5:00 p.m. The hearing session on March 28, 2003 will commence at 9:15 a.m. and finish at 12:30 p.m.

The hearing session originally scheduled for February 28, 2003 on the Little Rock, Arkansas, market, which was cancelled due to inclement weather, has been rescheduled for April 11, 2003. The agencies anticipate they will release a detailed schedule soon for the sessions of their joint hearings on health care and competition law and policy to be held April 9-11, 2003.

As noted in the Federal Register notice announcing this event, any interested person may submit written comments responsive to any of the topics to be addressed. Comments directed at a particular subject considered during a particular session of hearings must be submitted no later than 45 days after the date of that hearing session. Comments on broader subjects within the general scope of the hearings may be submitted at any time after the publication of this notice, but no later than November 28, 2003.

Written comments should be submitted in both hard-copy and electronic form. Six hard copies of each submission should be addressed to Donald S. Clark, Office of the Secretary, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC. 20580. Submissions should be captioned: "Comments Regarding Hearings on Health Care and Competition Law and Policy." Electronic submissions may be sent by electronic mail to healthcare@ftc.gov. Alternatively, electronic submissions may be filed on a 3-1/2 inch computer disk with a label stating the name of the submitter and the name and version of the word processing program used to create the document.

Information about the health care hearings is available on the Web sites for the hearings, http://www.ftc.gov/ogc/healthcarehearnings/ or http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/hchearing.htm and from the FTC's Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W., Washington, DC 20580.

FTC Media Contact:

Cathy MacFarlane,
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-3657
 

FTC Staff Contact:

David Hyman,
Special Counsel
202-326-2622
 

DOJ Media Contact:

Gina Talamona,
Office of Public Affairs
202-514-2007

DOJ Staff Contact:

William Berlin,
Litigation I Section
202-616-5938