The Justice Department has launched an anticompetitive regulations task force, aimed at identifying and eliminating federal and state regulations that hinder market competition — including in healthcare.
The initiative will operate within the DOJ’s antitrust division and expand ongoing efforts to combat policies that limit business dynamism, increase consumer costs and reduce innovation. The move reflects a broader deregulatory push by the Trump administration, anchored in recent executive orders focused on rolling back rules that impose undue burdens on businesses, particularly small enterprises.
“Realizing President Trump’s economic Golden Age will require unwinding burdensome regulations that stifle free market competition. This antitrust division will stand against harmful barriers to competition whether imposed by public regulators or private monopolists,” Abigail Slater, assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s antitrust division, said in March 28 news release. “We look forward to working with the public and with other federal agencies to identify and eliminate anticompetitive laws and regulations.”
Healthcare is among the key sectors identified by the DOJ as particularly affected by regulatory burdens. The agency highlighted that certain laws and regulations may discourage hospitals, physicians and other providers from offering low-cost, high-quality care, instead incentivizing consolidation or practices that raise costs and reduce patient access.
Hospital leaders may recognize these dynamics in certificate of need laws, reimbursement rules, or other structural policies that can constrain market entry, service expansion or clinical innovation. While these regulations may be designed to promote safety or manage capacity, the DOJ argues some may now serve primarily to protect incumbents and suppress competition.
The DOJ’s task force signals a renewed focus on regulatory capture — when laws and agencies are shaped more by special interests than by public benefit — and aims to restore a “level playing field” to enable greater market participation from smaller providers and emerging care models.
As a first step, the DOJ is seeking public comment through May 26 on specific laws and regulations that create the greatest barriers to competition, including those in healthcare, housing, transportation, agriculture, and energy. All market participants — including hospitals, health systems, physicians, insurers, employers and consumer groups — are encouraged to submit feedback.
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