CMA publishes Private Healthcare Remittal Final Report

On 5 September 2016 the UK Competition and Market Authority (CMA) published its final report on the Private Healthcare Remittal. The inquiry group confirmed that there is an adverse effect on competition (ACE) in the market for private healthcare service in central London. However, the CMA also found that a divestiture of some of HCA’s hospitals, required previously, would be disproportionate. Other remedies such as the appointment of the Private Healthcare Information Network, which provides independent information on healthcare performance, a crackdown on benefits and incentive schemes for referring clinicians, and the ability for the CMA to review future arrangements for NHS private patient units operated by private hospitals remained in place.

The decision to remit was taken by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) following complaints by affected parties regarding the accuracy of the econometric analysis, which contributed to the findings and proposed remedies in the original Inquiry. econ-da assisted the CMA in their re-evaluation of this analysis, contributing analyses which were crucial for the CMA’s findings.