A new group will join the fight to protect Americans from their country’s health care system.

The Federal Trade Commission has announced the creation of a health care task force “…that will engage in a coordinated, integrated approach to healthcare enforcement and advocacy to protect American patients, healthcare workers, and taxpayers.”

According to the FTC, the task force will:

  • Lead targeted enforcement and advocacy initiatives focused on key priorities;
  • Devise coordinated agencywide strategies on investigations;
  • Take a proactive and strategic approach to identifying amicus and statement of interest opportunities; and
  • Identify emerging issues and new priority areas for enforcement and advocacy.

In a memo to agency staff directing creation of the task force, FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson wrote that “Healthcare is a priority for the FTC’s enforcement and advocacy work in large part because of the President’s executive order to create a ‘more competitive, innovative, affordable, and higher quality healthcare system.’”

Ferguson also wrote that

Making America’s healthcare system work better – for patients, workers, and taxpayers – is a no brainer.  The industry constitutes an extraordinary eighteen percent of our country’s GDP, yet too many Americans struggle to get the care they need at prices they can afford.  Consolidation and anticompetitive conduct have distorted the economic landscape in many healthcare markets.  The results are disturbing:  higher prices, decreased quality, less access and transparency, and stifled innovation. Vulnerable populations including rural communities, seniors, and veterans lack access to affordable and convenient care.  Anticompetitive regulations further undermine incentives to lower costs and improve the quality of care.

Learn more about the task force, what it will do, and who will serve on it from this FTC news release, Ferguson’s memo to FTC staff directing the task force’s creation, and the Fierce Healthcare article “FTC launches multi-bureau Healthcare Task Force to spot ‘new priority areas for enforcement.’”