Bissegger Michael R
Epstein, Becker & Green, in Washington, DC, USA.
J Health Law. 2006 Winter;39(1):143-59.
This Article analyzes the October 2005 Initial Decision of the Federal Trade Commission Administrative Law Judge ordering Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Corporation to divest Highland Park Hospital on the grounds that the January 2000 merger of the entities violated Section 7 of the Clayton Act. In particular, this Article focuses on the ALJ's discussion of the use of patient flow analysis and the Elzinga-Hogarty test in defining relevant markets in hospital merger cases. Despite the ALJ's explicit rejection of the Elzinga-Hogarty Test and patient flow analysis as irrelevant and inappropriate in defining markets in the highly differentiated Hospital market, the author concludes that the ALJ's rejection of patient flow analysis likely was a response to misplaced and over-reliance on patient flow analysis by a number of courts in past prospective government challenges to hospital mergers as evidenced by the fact that the ALJ's analysis of competition and competitive effects relied upon, and thereby implicity endorsed, the use of patient flow analysis for certain purposes. Finally, the author concludes that patient flowanalysis, when used appropriately, should continue to be used as a preliminary step in geographic market definition and competitive effects analysis.
本文分析了美国联邦贸易委员会行政法法官2005年10月的初步裁决，该裁决命令埃文斯顿西北医疗集团剥离高地公园医院，理由是2000年1月这些实体的合并违反了《克莱顿法案》第7条。特别是，本文重点关注行政法法官在医院合并案件中对使用患者流量分析和埃尔津加 - 霍加蒂测试来界定相关市场的讨论。尽管行政法法官明确拒绝将埃尔津加 - 霍加蒂测试和患者流量分析视为在高度差异化的医院市场中界定市场无关且不适用的方法，但作者得出结论，行政法法官拒绝患者流量分析可能是对过去一些法院在政府对医院合并的前瞻性质疑中对患者流量分析的错误和过度依赖的回应，这一点从行政法法官对竞争和竞争效果的分析依赖并因此含蓄认可在某些目的下使用患者流量分析这一事实中可以看出。最后，作者得出结论，患者流量分析在适当使用时，应继续作为地理市场界定和竞争效果分析的初步步骤。
