DOJ, FTC, and HHS announced a new online portal for complaints on anticompetitive and monopolistic healthcare practices. Through HealthyCompetition.gov, whistleblowers can submit tips on antitrust violations that drive up healthcare costs, limit access to quality care, and harm healthcare workers and consumers. Unlike the general antitrust complaint portal, HealthyCompetition.gov specifically seeks information on healthcare-related antitrust violations. DOJ’s website identifies the following examples of relevant conduct:
Anticompetitive consolidations, joint ventures, and “roll-ups” (also known as serial acquisitions) of healthcare providers and companies;
Agreements that limit choice or fair wages for healthcare workers, such as wage-fixing, no-poach, and no-solicitation agreements among competitors, or non-compete clauses in employment agreements;
Price fixing, bid rigging, market allocation, or other anticompetitive collusion among competitors;
Activities that reduce transparency with respect to healthcare options and costs;
Agreements with patients or other companies that restrict competition, such as anti-tiering and anti-steering clauses, exclusive contracting clauses, all-or-nothing clauses, commercial price parity clauses, or agreements to delay or block generic drugs from entering the market;
Anticompetitive uses of healthcare data, such as acquiring data to surveil or collude with competitors, or preventing a patient from accessing their own electronic health information; and
Unnecessary recertification or accreditation requirements for healthcare providers that raise the costs of practicing medicine and reduce the number of providers in the market.
The FTC touted the new portal as part of the administration’s efforts to reduce healthcare costs and promote fairness for patients, providers, payers, and workers. It followed up with another announcement, earlier today, of a new rule banning most non-compete agreements. The ban will have a significant impact on healthcare providers and workers, since many of them are limited by non-compete agreements. These recent developments reflect the administration’s ongoing efforts to use antitrust laws to battle skyrocketing costs and harmful labor practices in the healthcare industry.
While the HealthyCompetition.gov portal does not offer awards to whistleblowers who help the government enforce its antitrust laws, some whistleblowers may be eligible for an award through the federal False Claims Act or its state equivalents. These laws forbid companies from defrauding the government by submitting false claims for payment, and antitrust violations can create a false claim. If you think you may have a False Claims Act case, reach out to Whistleblower Partners.
