President Biden on July 9 released an executive order (EO) on Promoting Competition in the American Economy. The order directs specific federal agencies to examine policies, industries and other practices to promote competition in the American economy.

A number of these directives are focused on the health care space. Among the highlights:

• Encourages the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to:
• Examine hospital mergers by resisting consolidation and promoting competition within industries through the independent oversight of mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures
• Support existing price transparency initiatives for hospitals, insurers and other providers alongside new price transparency initiatives made by the No Surprises Act
• Draft a report in 45 days with a plan to continue the effort to combat excessive pricing of prescription drugs and enhance domestic pharmaceutical supply chains, reduce the prices paid by the federal government for such drugs, and address price gouging
• Lower the prices of and improve access to prescription drugs and biologics, and continue to promote generic drug and biosimilar competition as proposed by the Drug Competition Action Plan of 2017 and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Biosimilar Action Plan of 2018
• Encourages the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to:
• Examine unfair use of non-compete clauses
• Examine unfair data collection and surveillance practices
• Examine unfair anticompetitive conduct or agreements in the prescription drug industries
• Encourages the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to:
• Prohibit unjust or unreasonable early termination fees for end-user communications contracts, enabling consumers to switch health care providers more easily.

The EO does not take immediate action in any of these areas, but directs agencies to follow the lead of the president and signals the desire of the administration to take future action. Access the full order here. A related fact sheet can also be found here.

Keywords: Prescription Drugs, Drugs, Generic, Biosimilar Pharmaceuticals, Economic Competition, United States Federal Trade Commission, Federal Government, Health Facility Merger, United States Food and Drug Administration, Insurance Carriers, Drug Industry, Costs and Cost Analysis, Fees and Charges, Policy, Hospital-Physician Joint Ventures, Delivery of Health Care, Health Personnel, Data Collection, Hospitals, ACC Advocacy

< Back to Listings