Alliance Urges Federal Trade Commission to Address Anticompetitive Practices

The Alliance submitted a response to the Federal Trade Commission’s request for public comment regarding reducing anti-competitive regulatory barriers in health care. Our health care system is deeply impacted by anticompetitive practices.

The Alliance appreciates the Federal Trade Commission’s long-standing work to reform occupational licensing regulations, removing anticompetitive practices. In particular, the FTC investigated options to enhance occupational license portability in 2017, which acknowledged that individual state licensing regulations reduced access to critical services, like telehealth, or increased prices to ordinary consumers. The FTC’s Economic Liberty Task Force held a roundtable, which examined ways to mitigate the negative effects of state-based occupational licensing requirements.

Competition is at the core of America’s economy and vigorous competition among providers utilizing telehealth in an open marketplace gives consumers the benefits of lower prices, higher quality products and services, and increased innovation. License portability benefits both providers practicing across state lines, as well as consumers who seek better access to services. The Alliance encourages the FTC to continue its work in removing anticompetitive and burdensome licensure requirements for health care providers.

The Alliance outlined four areas where we hope the FTC will focus to improve care for patients, and ease the burden for providers.