The Federal Trade Commission is drawing a line in the sand after generally deferring to states to assess and approve certain hospital mergers that may pose anticompetitive issues in local markets.
For decades, the FTC has shrugged off hospitals’ use of state-issued “Certificates of Public Advantage” (COPAs) that allowed them to pursue mergers without risking the agency’s lawsuit to block the deal. But HCA Healthcare’s $150 million sale of three hospitals to Louisiana Children’s Medical Center (LCMC) has finally convinced the FTC to ask a court to weigh in on the issue.
The FTC has tangled with COPA laws before, but it has never gone to court over the decades-old statutes even as more states adopt them. If the commission loses this battle, newly empowered state COPA laws could weaken federal agencies’ authority to demand compliance in merger investigations. Read more.
