Markets Wired

In a speech to the American Medical Association in Chicago, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz announced that the FTC will hold a public workshop this fall on health care competition policy, payment reform, and the new models for delivering health care that seek to incentivize high-quality, cost-effective care.

The new health care reform law establishes pilot programs for Medicare called “accountable care organizations” or ACOs as possible devices to improve quality and lower the cost of health care. The FTC workshop will focus on how ACOs could affect competition in commercial health care markets, so that ACOs could benefit consumers who are not eligible for Medicare as well as Medicare beneficiaries.

The Chairman’s speech can be found on the FTC’s website and as a link to this press release at: http://www.ftc.gov/speeches/leibowitz/100614amaspeech.pdf. A workshop website currently is being developed and will be posted on the FTC’s website.

Copies of the documents mentioned in this release are available from the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP.

(FYI 23.2010.wpd)