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Competition in the Healthcare Industry (LAWS90085)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
About this subject
Contact information
October
Lecturers
Mr Nick Taylor, Coordinator
Ms Toby G Singer
Email: law-masters@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 8344 6190
Website: law.unimelb.edu.au
Overview
Availability(Quotas apply) | October |
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Fees | Look up fees |
Governments strive to constrain runaway health care costs through competitive markets. This can be lucrative for private players and competition authorities are increasingly called upon to investigate commercial practices in the health care industry. The competition analysis must still take account of significant government and philanthropic service providers. Further, health care markets are susceptible to market failure due to information asymmetries, adverse selection, moral hazard and principal-agent problems. This subject explores the application of competition law to a broad range of such health care markets in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, with insights that will be generalisable to many other jurisdictions.
The teachers in the subject are from leading international law firm Jones Day and have many years of experience specialising in the application of competition law to the health care sector, advising clients and government agencies, and training government officials.
Principal topics include:
- Introduction to competition law and economic concepts in the context of the healthcare industry
- Health professionals and competition law
- Private health care facilities and competition law
- Public health care facilities and competition law
- Health insurance and competition law
- Competition issues arising from intellectual property protections and therapeutic good approval requirements
- Industry self-regulation and participation in government processes.
Intended learning outcomes
A student who has successfully completed this subject will:
- Have the specialist knowledge and skills to be able to identify when competition law issues arise across the healthcare industry
- Have an advanced understanding of the types of business structures that could and are used in the healthcare industry and be able to delineate the boundaries of when competition law does/ does not apply
- Be able to perform a sophisticated assessment of competition law risks associated with particular conduct in the healthcare industry
- Have a sophisticated grasp on how healthcare related commercial and regulatory aims can be achieved in compliance with competition law
- Have the necessary tools to critically analyse and advise governments, regulators and commercial entities in the healthcare field on the full range of competition law issues relevant to their objectives and affecting their activities.
Last updated: 3 November 2022