The Federal Trade Commission sent orders to six health insurers for claims data to help it study the effect of hospital acquisitions of physician groups.
This study is part of a broader initiative announced by the FTC to revamp its merger retrospective program and better equip the agency to challenge healthcare mergers.
The FTC sent orders to Aetna, Anthem, UnitedHealthcare, Cigna, Florida Blue and Health Care Service Corp. The orders ask the insurers to provide patient-level claims data for inpatient, outpatient and physician services.
The FTC is studying the effect of physician consolidation, including physician practice mergers and hospital acquisitions of physician practices, in 15 states from 2015 to 2020.