May 15, 2024- The U.S. Justice Department announced the formation of the Antitrust Division’s Task Force on Health Care Monopolies and Collusion (HCMC). The HCMC will guide the DOJ’s approach and enforcement strategy in health care, facilitating policy advocacy, investigations, and civil and criminal enforcement in healthcare markets.
The HCMC will consider widespread competition concerns and issues in healthcare including payer-provider consolidation, serial acquisitions, labor and quality of care, medical billing, health care IT services, access to and misuse of healthcare data, and more.
The HCMC will be directed by Katrina Rouse, a long-serving antitrust prosecutor who joined the Antitrust Division in 2011. She previously served as Chief of the division’s Defense, Industrials and Aerospace Section, Assistant Chief of the Division’s San Francisco Office, a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney and a Trial Attorney in the division’s Healthcare and Consumer Products Section.