Health Care Competition

The FTC’s Health Care Work

When health care markets are competitive, consumers benefit from lower costs, better care and more innovation. The Federal Trade Commission enforces the antitrust laws in health care markets to prevent anticompetitive conduct that would deprive consumers of the benefits of competition. The agency also gives guidance to participants in the health care market - 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 U.S. antitrust laws. The FTC maintains its expertise in health care markets by doing research and issuing reports on competition issues, which in the past have included empirical studies of generic drug entry, contact lens sales, and mail order pharmacies, and economic analyses of the effects of mergers involving non-profit hospitals.