The Federal Trade Commission has widened its scrutiny of healthcare deal-making and dominant vendors over the past month, touching hospital M&A, ASC consolidation and the EHR market in quick succession.
Here are three recent FTC moves to know.
1. Epic faces an antitrust probe over data-sharing practices
The FTC has opened an investigation into Epic over concerns that the EHR giant may be restricting data-sharing in ways that stifle competition.
The probe adds to a run of regulatory and legal pressure on Epic. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the company in December 2025, alleging it restricted data-sharing to keep providers from adopting rival platforms, and Particle Health has separately accused Epic of erecting barriers against potential competitors.
Epic controls an estimated 43.7% of the U.S. acute care hospital EHR market, and provider organizations on its platform treat more than 280 million Americans.
“We’re leaders in interoperability to support patient care, and we do not engage in anticompetitive behavior,” an Epic spokesperson said. “Epic does more to support standards-based data-sharing than any other EHR.”
The FTC declined to comment when contacted by Becker’s Hospital Review.
2. FTC finalizes consent order requiring Ascension to divest 7 ASCs
On Aug. 25, the FTC finalized a consent order requiring St. Louis-based Ascension to divest seven Amsurg ambulatory surgery centers across five markets, a condition of its $3.9 billion acquisition of Nashville, Tenn.-based Amsurg that closed in early June. The deal had expanded Ascension’s ASC footprint from 58 centers to more than 300 across 34 states.
Six of the divested centers — in Nashville; Panama City, Fla.; Tulsa, Okla.; Waco, Texas; and Wichita, Kan. — will go to Optum’s SC Affiliates, while the Panama City center will go to Florida Gastroenterology Center.
The FTC said the acquisition “would limit competition for outpatient surgical services performed by gastroenterologists, ophthalmologists and orthopedists in those markets, potentially leading to higher prices and lower quality of care.”
The commission voted 2-0 to approve the order, which also requires Ascension to give the FTC advance notice before acquiring any additional ASCs in the divested centers’ metro areas.
3. FTC steers a struggling Ohio hospital to a new buyer
The agency’s most hands-on intervention came Sept. 2, when it announced it had helped steer Lancaster, Ohio-based Fairfield Medical Center away from a planned acquisition by Columbus-based OhioHealth and toward Chillicothe, Ohio-based Adena Health instead. The Adena deal closed Sept. 1, making the hospital — along with its two emergency departments and its clinics — Adena’s fifth hospital, now operating as Adena Fairfield Medical Center.
An FTC staff investigation had identified serious competitive concerns with the OhioHealth deal, including the risk of higher costs and reduced care quality, and staff also questioned whether Fairfield Medical had adequately searched for alternative buyers. Rather than suing to block the transaction, FTC staff encouraged Fairfield Medical to seek other purchasers, an approach that drew multiple interested buyers and led the hospital to abandon the OhioHealth deal.
“Today’s announcement should serve as a reminder that we will stop bad hospital deals,” said Daniel Guarnera, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Commissioner Mark Meador added that financial distress is “not a blank check for mergers” that substantially reduce hospital competition.
“We fully support Fairfield’s decision to move forward with another partner and remain appreciative of their collaboration,” OhioHealth said in a statement.
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