WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission today released a detailed agenda for the sessions of their joint hearings on health care and competition law and policy to be held during April-May, 2003.

Hearings will be held April 23 - 25, 2003 and May 7 - 8, 2003 at the FTC Conference Center at 601 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Washington D.C. This set of hearings will focus on issues involving health insurers. More detailed schedules, listing specific witnesses and times for each hearing date, will be released at a later date. The schedule will be as follows:

Date	Morning Session Topic	Afternoon Session Topic
Wednesday, April 23	Health Insurance Monopoly: Market Definition	Health Insurance Monopoly: Competitive Effects
Thursday, April 24	Health Insurance Monopoly: Entry and Efficiencies	Health Insurance Monopsony: Market Definition
Friday, April 25	Health Insurance Monopsony: Competitive Effects	Health Insurance Monopsony: Competitive Effects
Wednesday, May 7	Health Insurance/Providers: Countervailing Market Power	Most Favored Nation Clauses
Thursday, May 8	Physician Hospital Organizations

The subsequent set of hearings will be held May 21 - 23, 2003 and May 29 ­ 30, 2003 at the FTC Conference Center at 601 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Washington D.C. This set of hearings will focus on quality and consumer information. The schedule will be as follows:

Date	Morning Session Topic	Afternoon Session Topic
Wednesday, May 21	Quality and Consumer Information: Overview	Quality and Consumer Information: Overview
Thursday, May 22	Quality and Consumer Information: Hospitals	Quality and Consumer Information: Hospitals
Friday, May 23	Quality and Consumer Information: Physicians	Quality and Consumer Information: Physicians
Thursday, May 29	Quality and Consumer Protection: Market Entry	Quality and Consumer Protection: Market Entry
Friday, May 30	Financing Design/Consumer Information Issues	Information and Advertising

As noted in the Federal Register notice announcing this event, any interested person may submit written comments responsive to any of the topics to be addressed. Comments directed at a particular subject considered during a particular session of hearings must be submitted no later than 45 days after the date of that specific hearing session. Comments on broader subjects within the general scope of the hearings may be submitted at any time after the publication of this notice, but no later than November 28, 2003.

Written comments should be submitted in both hard copy and electronic form. Six hard copies of each submission should be addressed to Donald S. Clark, Office of the Secretary, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. Submissions should be captioned: "Comments Regarding Hearings on Health Care and Competition Law and Policy." Electronic submissions may be sent by electronic mail to healthcare@ftc.gov. Alternatively, electronic submissions may be filed on a 3-1/2 inch computer disk with a label stating the name of the submitter and the name and version of the word processing program used to create the document.

Information about the health care hearings is available on the websites for the hearings, http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/hchearing.htm and http://www.ftc.gov/ogc/healthcarehearings/ and from the FTC's Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580.

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DOJ MEDIA CONTACT:
Gina Talamona
Office of Public Affairs
202-514-2007

DOJ STAFF CONTACT:
William Berlin
Litigation I Section
202-616-5938

FTC MEDIA CONTACT:
Cathy MacFarlane
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-3657

FTC STAFF CONTACT:
David Hyman
Special Counsel
202-326-2622