Analyzing and Assessing the Impact of Contracts, Business Practices, and Mergers in Health Care of Labor Markets

The Biden Administration has made clear that the federal antitrust enforcement agencies will devote more time and attention to how contracts, business practices, and mergers may adversely impact upstream labor markets that supply workers in the relevant markets. This program looks at how those inquiries and issues may play out in the health care industry. It will cover recent developments involving labor including non-competes, wage-fixing, no-poach agreements, and horizontal and vertical mergers. This session surveys the current landscape of criminal and civil antitrust enforcement, policymaking, and guidance from the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (the “Agencies”) regarding labor markets in health care, which includes:

• Issues and concerns raised by the July 2021 White House Executive Order regarding consolidations, collusion, non-compete provisions, occupational licensing restrictions, and other practices that can depress wages or limit mobility for healthcare workers
• Application of the Agencies’ October 2016 Antitrust Guidance for Human Resource Professionals to the recruitment, retention, and termination of employees in the healthcare industry
• Recent and ongoing criminal prosecutions of healthcare firms by the Antitrust Division for entering into wage-fixing and non-poach agreements
• Preliminary readouts, focusing on healthcare labor markets, from (1) the Agencies’ January 2022request for information regarding merger enforcement and revision of the merger guidelines, and(2) the FTC’s August 2021 solicitation of public comments on contract terms that harm competition

Other Speakers:

Dionne Lomax
Matt Schmitt