Health care joint ventures and competition law Essay

Health care joint ventures and competition law - Essay Example One of the major problems in applying antitrust analysis to joint 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 creates or is intended to create a new capability in terms of providing new productive capacity, new technology, a new product, or entry into a new market. The term â€Å"joint venture† can be applied to a wide range of collaborative activity. The Department of Justice, in its Guidelines for Internationa l Operations, has defined a joint venture as â€Å"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.