What Impact will the CRE Report on Hospital Consolidation Have on FTC Investigations?

 Subsequent to the release of the CRE Report on Hospital Consolidation we received numerous inquires. We will attempt to answer them but will do so within our existing resource base.

 One common question is what  impact will the CRE report  have on FTC investigations?  We have no idea but here are is one overriding consideration:

 Populating the IPD

 The document you are reading is called an Interactive Public Docket (IPD).  The more informative comments made on an  IPD the more regulators read the  IPD. Consequently our  readers are encouraged to offer their comments, whether positive or negative, on the content of an  IPD.

 Comments are easy to make. (1) Either simply type your comments on an existing post  in the comment section below an article  or in the alternative post a new article by using the comment facility to the right of this post. In the later case you may  attach relevant studies.

 Comments made on an existing post go up immediately, new posts are “moderated” in that  CRE staff review them for profanity or personal accusations before they are published.

 In both instances comments may be made anonymously.

Bottom Line

An IPD is a “shadow” docket of a the docket maintained by federal regulators in a regulatory proceeding, the primary difference between the two dockets  being that the IPD is open 24/7 for comments  360 days a year and often precedes the esablishment  of a federal  docket on a particular subject matter.

Extensive use of an IPD by stakeholders allows them to offer their views to regulators before, during and after the close of  a public comment period.

The consideration and ultimate acceptance of the material on an IPD by federal regulators and their regulatory overseers depends in large part on the recognized regulatory expertise and federal credentials of the managers of the organization which hosts the IPD.