FTC Staff Comment to the Puerto Rico House of Representatives Regarding Senate Bill 2190 Concerning

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20580 Office of Policy Planning Bureau of Economics Bureau of Competition January 30, 2008 Antonio Silva Delgado, President Treasury and Financial Affairs Commission Comisión de Hacienda y Asuntos Financieros Cámara de Representantes de Puerto Rico Dear Mr. Delgado: The staffs of the Federal Trade Commission=s Office of Policy Planning, Bureau 1of Competition, and Bureau of Economics are pleased to respond to your request that we review and comment on the likely competitive effects of Senate Bill 2190 (S.B. 22190 or the Bill), which would permit collective bargaining for health care providers in Puerto Rico. The Bill would provide for collective bargaining, on behalf of diverse individual and corporate health care service providers, on fees and other matters. In our judgment, such collective bargaining may raise prices for, and thereby reduce access to, health care services, without ensuring better quality care as a countervailing benefit for health care consumers. For those reasons, the Commission has enforced the antitrust laws when certain private groups of health care providers have colluded to fix prices, and the Commission consistently has opposed legislative proposals to exempt from antitrust scrutiny various categories of health care providers. In fact, S.B. 2190 would appear to authorize private parties to engage in actions that normally would ...