Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearing on vertical health care mergers

The Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights yesterday held a hearing on the competitive implications of vertical mergers in the health care sector. The discussion focused on mergers involving pharmacy benefit managers, insurers and pharmacies, but also covered hospital acquisitions of physician offices. Testifying at the hearing were Craig Garthwaite, a professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management; Thomas Greaney, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law; Cory Capps, a partner at Bates White Economic Consulting; and Fiona Scott Morton, an economics professor at the Yale School of Management.