Health care joint ventures and competition law Essay

Health care junction ventures and competition law - Essay ExampleOne of the major problems in applying antitrust analysis to juncture ventures in the health care industry, as in other industries, is the inherent problem of properly defining a joint venture. The classic and most-often cited definition states that a joint venture is an enterprise in which two or more separate firms or entities integrate their operations such that the following conditions are met (1) the enterprise is under the joint control of parent entities, which are not under related control (2) each parent makes a substantial contribution to the joint enterprise (3) the joint enterprise exists as a business entity separate from the parent entities and (4) the enterprise cooks or is intended to create a new capability in conditions of providing new productive capacity, new technology, a new product, or entry into a new market. The term joint venture can be applied to a wide range of collaborative activity. The Department of Justice, in its Guidelines for International Operations, has defined a joint venture as essentially any collaborative effort among firms, short of a merger, with respect to R&D, production, distribution and/or the marketing of products or services. In the health care industry, agreements between hospitals and physicians to provide certain hospital-based services, such as anesthesiology, radiology, and pathology could be viewed as joint ventures.