by Patricia M. Wagner and Ross K. Friedberg
On April 19, 2011, the “Proposed Statement of Antitrust Enforcement Policy Regarding Accountable Care Organizations Participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program” (“Proposed Statement”) was published in the Federal Register. As noted in the Proposed Statement, the antitrust enforcement agencies (the Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission issued the Proposed Statement in response to a perceived preference by potential accountable care organization (“ACO”) participants to operate in both the Medicare and commercial markets. In order to “maximize and foster opportunities for ACO innovation, the Agencies wish both to clarify the antitrust analysis of newly formed collaborations among independent providers that seek to become ACOs in the Shared Savings Program and to coordinate the antitrust analysis with CMS review of those ACO applications.” This alert provides an overview of the Proposed Statement.