The House last night voted 230 to 185 to approve the Standard Merger and Acquisition Reviews Through Equal Rules Act (H.R. 5645), AHA-supported legislation that would standardize the merger review process for the two federal antitrust agencies. “The SMARTER Act helps hospitals and health systems evolve to serve the needs of their communities in the face of changing payment and delivery system reforms so they can better coordinate and integrate care to lower costs and improve quality for patients,” AHA said in a letter of support for the bill. “This legislation takes the critical step of standardizing the merger review process between the two federal antitrust agencies: The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission. Hospitals, in particular, have been adversely impacted by the ability of the FTC to use its own internal administrative process to challenge a transaction. Specifically, while the DOJ litigates its merger cases entirely in federal court before an impartial judge, the FTC has used the difference in authority between the two federal antitrust agencies to subject hospital transactions to what amounts to double jeopardy: commencing administrative litigation at the same time pursuing a preliminary injunction in federal court.”

Related News Articles

Headline
The Senate Appropriations Committee July 31 advanced the fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services,…
Chairperson's File
Public
The recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act will bring big changes to health care. AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack joined me for a Leadership Dialogue…
Chairperson's File
Public
This month Congress enacted the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — a sweeping package that contained many of President Trump’s legislative priorities on taxes,…
Headline
The AHA July 2 expressed support for the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act (H.R. 3890), bipartisan legislation that would add 14,000 Medicare-funded…
Headline
The House July 3 voted 218-214 to pass the final version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1), which enacts many of President Trump’s legislative…
Headline
The Senate narrowly passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1) on July 1 by a 50-50 tally, with Vice President J.D. Vance casting the tie-breaking vote.…