The Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health merger is likely to get a close review from the Federal Trade Commission as the Biden administration has taken a tougher stance on healthcare consolidation, Healthcare Dive reports, citing antitrust and legal experts.
“I don’t think anything of this size in a healthcare transaction today is going to get rubber stamped,” said Bill Horton, a partner at Jones Walker who focuses on healthcare transactions.
Antitrust regulators have challenged hospital deals when close competitors seek to merge within the same market.
“Historically, the FTC concern in hospital and healthcare institution mergers has been the geographic overlap,” Horton said.
Advocate Aurora and Atrium do not have any geographic market overlap. The systems span six separate states through the Midwest and South. Read more.
