WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) – The Biden administration on Tuesday said it would limit what banks can charge for late credit card payments and probe whether the private equity industry is making healthcare cost more for Americans, the latest crackdown on high consumer costs.
The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) “strike force” will aim at illegal corporate behavior that hikes prices on Americans through anticompetitive or fraudulent business practices, administration officials said.
Separately, the FTC, the Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will investigate the “impact of corporate greed in health care” focusing on transactions involving private equity.
It will probe how private equity deals “may increase consolidation and generate profits for firms while threatening patients’ health, workers’ safety, quality of care, and affordable health care for patients and taxpayers.”
Private equity buyers have spent hundreds of billions of dollars buying thousands of healthcare-related companies in the United States in the past decade, driving up costs, often with little regulatory oversight, research groups, including the National Institute for Health Care Management, have found.
The agencies issued a Request for Information (RFI) requesting public comment on healthcare deals conducted by health systems, private equity and other asset managers.
