Federal and state antitrust regulators kept healthcare squarely in their crosshairs through the first six months of 2026, launching a dedicated FTC task force and extracting major concessions from pharmacy benefit managers.
The Federal Trade Commission unveiled its Healthcare Tinquire Force on March 20, pulling together resources from its competition, consumer protection, economics, policy, and technology bureaus. Chairman Andrew Ferguson framed the move as a response to consolidation that has driven up prices, degraded quality, and choked innovation across healthcare markets. The task force will coordinate with the Department of Justice and Health and Human Services.
On the merger front, regulators continued to favor divestitures over outright blocks. Sevita Health’s $835 million purchase of BrightSpring Health Services’ community living business cleared only after Sevita agreed to sell 128 intermediate care facilities across Indiana, Louisiana, and Texas to Dungarvin Group. That consent order, finalized in June, also imposes a 10-year notice requirement for future ICF acquisitions.
Ascension Health Alliance faced similar treatment for its $3.9 billion AmSurg deal. The FTC required divestiture of seven ambulatory surgery centers across five metropolitan areas, including Nashville and Wichita. Six went to SC Affiliates, one to Florida Gastroenterology Center.
The most consequential enforcement involved pharmacy benefit managers. Express Scripts settled in February, agreeing to tie patient costs to net drug prices after rebates rather than list prices. It must also relocate its group purchasing organization from Switzerland to the United States. Optum followed in June with a commitment to abandon rebate-driven models for flat service fees by 2027. Caremark reached a settlement in July with terms mirroring the Express Scripts agreement.
Hospital payor contracting also drew fire. The DOJ and Ohio sued OhioHealth in February over anti-steering, anti-tiering, and all-or-nothing provisions in commercial payor contracts. A June settlement required OhioHealth to strip those clauses from existing agreements. The White House Council of Economic Advisers estimated a nationwide ban could lower hospital prices by up to 18%.
State oversight expanded too. Maine’s new law, effective January 2027, mandates 180-day pre-closing notice for private equity and hedge fund acquisitions of healthcare entities. Oregon hiked filing fees as high as $350,000 for comprehensive reviews. California, Massachusetts, and Washington all tightened their regimes.
Algorithmic pricing litigation advanced. A Massachusetts federal judge refused to dismiss antitrust claims against Zelis and five major insurers in March, while Arizona’s attorney general sued MultiPlan in June over alleged price-fixing through centralized reimbursement data. Both cases signal sustained scrutiny of vendors that coordinate pricing information across competing insurers.
