SMARTER Moves for the FTC
The Standard Mergers and Acquisitions Review Through Equal Rules (SMARTER) Act passed the House on . This represents real progress on legislation that the AHA actively supports. The act would align the Federal Trade Commission鈥檚 (FTC) merger review with that of the Department of Justice (DOJ) by eliminating FTC鈥檚 ability to use its own administrative tribunal to challenge a merger 鈥 it would have to go to court just like DOJ.听This would remove costly and unfair regulatory roadblocks to hospital realignment and field-wide efforts to build a better care delivery health system that can deliver higher quality and better coordinated care to better meet the needs of patients and communities. There鈥檚 still a ways to go, and we鈥檒l keep pushing for Senate consideration. But, given the current legislative stalemate in Washington on so many issues, this was an important victory that moves us in the right direction.
听