Last Friday, the DOJ underlined these concerns when it formed the Health Care Monopolies and Collusion (HCMC) task force “to elevate the importance of health care antitrust enforcement.”1 Today, we discuss the application of antitrust law to the use of AI in health care, including recent allegations of algorithmic price fixing in the setting of certain out-of-network rates. Takeaways for Health Care Industry ParticipantsIt is crucial that, as the health care industry increasingly embraces artificial intelligence to make operating health care businesses more efficient, providers, payers and others must carefully consider whether reliance on AI systems for core functions like pricing, billing and paying claims creates a risk of liability under existing legal schemes such as antitrust and unfair competition laws. This analysis is just one aspect of the overall governance program that health care entities should implement as their use of AI, either internally or through vendors, continues to ramp-up. 1 Press Release, U.S Dep’t of Justice, Assistant Attorney Jonathan Kanter Announces Task Force on Health Care Monopolies and Collusion (Apr. Trade Comm’n, Price fixing by algorithm is still price fixing (Mar.

Source: New York Times May 15, 2024 21:57 UTC