FTC erects additional administrative barriers to hospital mergers

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) increased their required premerger reporting requirements for any healthcare providers such as hospitals. Healthcare Dive reports:

Thursday’s update marks the first time the FTC has revised its Hart-Scott-Rodino Act premerger notification form in nearly 50 years.
The law is intended to alert officials of companies’ intent to merge and offer them a short window to determine whether to conduct a more extensive antitrust review.
The FTC proposedincreasing documentation for the premerger notification process in June 2023. At the time, the FTC said it was necessary to glean a “basic understanding of key facts” as mergers becameincreasingly complex.
Both the FTC and AHA said the final rule, which is set to go into effect 90 days after publication in the Federal Register, is less aggressive compared to the proposed rule.
However, the FTC estimates companies will still need to log 105 hours per response to comply with the final rule — an increase of 68 hours compared to current averages. In June, the agency estimated its proposal would require approximately 107 hours per response.
Provider groups said the new documentation load would unnecessarily burden companies looking to merge. 

Unsurprisingly, the American Hospital Association does not like the rule. Fierce Healthcare reports:

The American Hospital Association immediately pushed back on the proposal…saying the increased paperwork would comprise “more information than the agencies could feasibly review in 30 days” and would “function as little more than a tax on mergers.”

The full final rule–weighing in at 460 pages–can be found here. What do you think about the FTC’s final rule?