- The Federal Trade Commission has sued Texas’ largest anesthesiology provider, alleging that the company uses monopoly power to drive up prices for patients.
- The agency announced that New York-based private equity firm Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe was hired in 2012 to pursue an aggressive consolidation strategy that took advantage of Texas’ fragmented anesthesiology provider market. claims to have founded US Anesthesia Partners.
- The companies allegedly used their monopoly power to jack up prices, rake in tens of millions of dollars in extra money and boost profits.
Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan testifies during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Federal Trade Commission oversight on July 13, 2023, at the Capitol in Washington, DC.
Kevin Worm | Reuters
of Federal Trade Commission The company sued Texas’ largest anesthesiology provider Thursday, accusing the company of using its monopoly power to hike up prices for patients and increase profits.
The FTC asked a federal judge in Houston, Texas, to dismantle US Anesthesia Partners’ alleged monopoly power and permanently bar the company from engaging in anticompetitive conduct.
The agency announced that in 2012, New York-based private equity firm Welsh Carson Anderson & Stowe will pursue an aggressive consolidation strategy that takes advantage of Texas’ fragmented anesthesiology provider market. He claims to have founded US Anesthesia Partners in .
The FTC’s complaint alleges that Welsh Carson sought to make USAP the dominant provider in Texas by combining numerous independent operations that had previously competed with each other and keeping prices low.
According to the complaint, Wales Carson and USAP engaged in what the companies called a “roll-up” in which they acquired nearly every large anesthesia practice in Texas.
Since 2013, USAP has grown from 400 anesthetists in 45 medical facilities to 4,500 anesthetists in 1,100 facilities in 2021.
According to the complaint, USAP established a monopoly in Texas’ two largest cities, Houston and Dallas, and also established a dominant position in the state’s capital, Austin.
The company used that advantage to inflate prices and collect tens of millions of dollars, the FTC alleges.
According to the complaint, USAP is so strong in Austin, Dallas, and Houston that it makes it difficult for competitors to enter the market and because patients typically cannot avoid anesthesia, it increases prices while gaining market share. It is said that it is possible.
USAP Director Dr. Derek Schoppa told CNBC that the FTC’s complaint is based on flawed legal theory and a lack of medical understanding of anesthesiology.
“The FTC’s intended results threaten to disrupt and limit patients’ equitable access to quality anesthesia care in Texas and threaten Texas hospitals that provide care in underserved areas. and the health care system,” Schoppa said in a statement.
