Vertical mergers, theory and fact: The Tipline for 20 June 2019

Just a few hours after we participated in a discussion of vertical mergers at the GCR Live DC workshop yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission said it was allowing the biggest health insurer in the US to buy a medical group, so long as it divested the provider business in the Las Vegas area. With the chair recused, the remaining four commissioners agreed to issue the settlement for public comment, but they still split along increasingly familiar party lines on whether the agency should have sued to stop harm from the deal in Colorado.