During a visit to Wisconsin, Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan left open the possibility of the agency intervening in ongoing litigation involving Epic Systems, ABC affiliate WKOW reported Oct. 3.
Epic is facing an antitrust lawsuit filed by Particle Health on Sept. 23 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit alleges that Epic is stifling competition in the payer platform space.
Particle Health, a data platform that aggregates and delivers actionable patient information to healthcare companies, claims Epic is using its market position to unfairly limit competition. While Ms. Khan did not confirm whether the FTC would get involved, she acknowledged hearing concerns about similar issues from entrepreneurs and startups trying to break into the healthcare industry.
"We're not involved in that litigation, which is brought by a private company, but it's actually something I had heard concerns about, especially among entrepreneurs and startups that were trying to enter the healthcare space," she said during a news conference.
She added that the FTC often participates in private company lawsuits by submitting amicus briefs, offering the court the agency's legal perspective.
When asked whether the FTC would file a brief in the lawsuit involving Particle Health, Ms. Khan did not give a definitive answer.
"It's too early for us to say," she said.
Ms. Khan also emphasized that companies controlling large amounts of data pose risks beyond stifling competition.
"Another concern we've seen is that when you consolidate control over data, that can actually leave systems much more vulnerable to certain types of cyber attacks or other hacks that lead to systems really crashing," she said.
Epic, meanwhile, has dismissed the lawsuit as baseless.
"This lawsuit attempts to divert attention from the real issue: Particle's unlawful actions on the Carequality health information exchange network violated HIPAA privacy regulations," an Epic spokesperson told Becker's. "Particle's complaint mischaracterizes Carequality's decision, which in fact proposes banning Particle customers that were accessing patient data for impermissible purposes. Epic's software is open and interoperable, allowing healthcare organizations to easily share data under HIPAA and all relevant regulations"
Carequality is a national health information exchange framework that facilitates secure data sharing among healthcare organizations. Both Epic and Particle participate in the network. Epic raised concerns earlier this year that some Particle customers may have been misusing patient data through Carequality, prompting the company to block certain users from accessing records. Particle has denied these allegations.
Epic holds the largest market share for digital health records in hospitals. In 2023, Epic covered more than half of all U.S. acute care hospital beds, expanding its lead in the hospital market to 39.1%, according to KLAS Research.