SWOT ANALYSIS
Anti-trust law
Antitrust or competition law refers to statutes which are established by the government of United States for the purpose of protecting consumers from predatory business practices through ensuring that there is far competition in open-market economy (Hylton, 2003).
Impacts of anti-trust laws on the healthcare industry
To this date, healthcare industry has undergone massive restructuring which is basically influenced by fundamental shift in the economy. Because of this, antitrust litigation or law involving hospital practices is common. This is to say that, in order to ensure that hospital competition produces diverse social benefits, extensive regulators and legislators are required than on courts.
Nonetheless, anti-trust law has greatly played a crucial role in reshaping our contemporary medical market. For better or worse, this statute has assisted in ushering in the period of medicine as being a big business. The reason for this is because the various lawsuits against medical institutions constitute the lion’s share of the anti-trust litigation. From the perspective of this law, healthcare industry is simply business firms which are organized for the purpose of providing quality medical care (Wolper, 2004). These medical services involve complicated combinations of advanced technology, physical facilities, or specialized human capital. Despite that, since the modern antitrust law focuses on the behavior of the farm and not its objectives, it makes it clear that these institutions can opt to follow any objective function they which as long as they pursue them independently as well as avoiding to become a monopoly. Because of this, antitrust law leaves it to the open-market so as to access whether the general achievements of the healthcare industry have social value (Ameringer & M.M.F, 2008).
Moreover, since harmonizing competition and health policy isn’t an easy task, antitrust laws aids in controlling the behavior of private actors in the healthcare industry. The reason for this is because it is somehow believed that private and public sides of the medical markets are distinct. Thus without efficient and careful attention to such interactions, it means that neither the private competition nor the public programs will benefit the society as much as their proponents intend (Wolper, 2004).
Additionally, since hospitals and doctors argue that there is the need of collaborating in the modern healthcare environment, antitrust law aids in scrutinizing their basic understanding of the ground rules which governs healthcare industry (Ameringer & M.M.F, 2008). Conversely, since hospital mergers as well as other activities may harm consumers, the inclusion of antitrust law ensures that issues such as improving quality and services, medical costs or insurance are controlled. This in return improves the patient’s welfare, the practices of the physicians.
SWOT analysis of the antitrust law
From above, it is clear that antitrust laws are rules and laws which are set for the purpose of regulating businesses through fostering fair competition, restricting the formation of monopoly and cartels (Hylton, 2010). This is achieved through scrutinizing acquisition and mergers of various businesses hence creating consumerist and efficient market.
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Ensures that business activities are controlled so that it can be accountable for any form of malpractices conducted or defective products or services offered to the consumer
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Some of the business end up finding themselves in this law anti-business as well as severely taxed on their success. The intention is that it will affect their economic performance in return hence hurting the very competition which this law upholds (Hylton, 2003).
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Since large companies don’t extensively abuse their market power, it allows smaller ones to have higher changes of being bullied out of the market.
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The general strategic use of this law is a significant phenomenon. Despite that, to date it still receives little attention from several business organizations or strategies (Hylton, 2010).
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Bibliography
Hylton, K. N. (2003). Antitrust law: Economic theory and common law. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Wolper, L. F. (2004). Health care administration: Planning, implementing, and managing organized delivery systems. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Ameringer, C. F., & Milbank Memorial Fund. (2008). The health care revolution: From medical monopoly to market competition. Berkeley: University of California Press
Hylton, K. (2010). Antitrust law and economics. Northampton, Mass: Edward Elgar.
