Stacking the Blocks: Vertical Integration and Antitrust in the Healthcare Industry

For many decades, the U.S. healthcare industry mostly consisted of a diversity of unintegrated physicians, hospitals, and insurers. Over the last 10 to 15 years, vertical consolidations involving providers as well as insurers have brought greater attention to the effects of vertical integration on the cost and quality of healthcare. Attention to vertical integration increased further in 2020, when the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission issued the Vertical Merger Guidelines in ord