{"id":41681,"date":"2023-07-27T10:30:52","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T14:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/d56fg8tfg.fitnews.club\/finance\/ftc-reaches-proposed-settlement-with-surescripts-in-illegal-monopolization-case\/"},"modified":"2023-07-27T10:30:52","modified_gmt":"2023-07-27T14:30:52","slug":"ftc-reaches-proposed-settlement-with-surescripts-in-illegal-monopolization-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d56fg8tfg.fitnews.club\/finance\/ftc-reaches-proposed-settlement-with-surescripts-in-illegal-monopolization-case\/","title":{"rendered":"FTC Reaches Proposed Settlement with Surescripts in Illegal Monopolization Case"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Federal Trade Commission filed a proposed order<\/a>\u00a0that would prohibit health information technology company Surescripts from engaging in exclusionary conduct and executing or enforcing non-compete agreements with current and former employees. The FTC\u2019s proposed order, filed in federal court, would resolve charges that Surescripts used anticompetitive tactics to illegally monopolize two e-prescription drug markets and would provide immediate relief to consumers. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The settlement follows a favorable federal court ruling that found that Surescripts possesses monopoly power in e-prescribing services with a 95 percent \u201csupershare.\u201d In adopting the Commission\u2019s position, the opinion made important clarifications of the law, including on the establishment of monopoly power through market share and barriers to entry. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe FTC will not hesitate to take action in enforcing the antitrust laws to protect health care consumers,\u201d said FTC Bureau of Competition Director Holly Vedova. \u201cThe proposed order is a victory in creating a fair and competitive playing field in the e-prescription drug market. In large part because of Surescripts\u2019 conduct, virtually everyone today who has a prescription filled electronically does so via the Surescripts networks. The proposed order would eliminate the anticompetitive restraints Surescripts has imposed on its customers since 2010 and would create conditions that allow competition to flourish for the benefit of anyone who gets a prescription filled at a pharmacy.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In April 2019, the <\/span><\/span><\/span>FTC sued Surescripts<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>, alleging that the company employed illegal vertical and horizontal restraints in order to maintain its monopolies over two electronic prescribing, or \u201ce-prescribing,\u201d markets: routing and eligibility. The market for routing e-prescriptions uses technology that enables health care providers to send electronic prescriptions directly to pharmacies; whereas the market for eligibility enables health care providers to electronically determine patients\u2019 eligibility for prescription coverage through access to insurance coverage and benefits information, usually through a pharmacy benefit manager.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In its suit, the FTC alleged that Surescripts intentionally set out to keep e-prescription routing and eligibility customers on both sides of each market from using competing platforms (a practice known as multihoming), by using anticompetitive exclusivity agreements, threats, and other exclusionary tactics to achieve its goal.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Court denied Surescripts\u2019 motion to dismiss in January 2020, and in March 2022 Surescripts and the FTC filed motions for summary judgement. In March 2023, the Court granted the FTC\u2019s motion for partial summary judgment and encouraged the Commission and Surescripts to engage in settlement discussions. The district court then referred the case to mediation. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The FTC\u2019s proposed order has a 20-year term and would prohibit Surescripts from engaging in the types of exclusionary conduct alleged in the FTC\u2019s case. The proposed order also goes beyond routing and eligibility, extending the same prohibitions to Surescripts\u2019 <\/span><\/span><\/span>medication history services and the company\u2019s on-demand formulary services, which <\/span><\/span><\/span>uses <\/span><\/span><\/span>data that identifies the patient\u2019s group or plan level prescription benefit information for a specific or alternative drug. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Specifically, the proposed order would:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n