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U.S. Department of Justice Seal and Letterhead
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2003
WWW.USDOJ.GOV/ATR
AT
(202) 514-2007
TDD (202) 514-1888


DOJ/FTC HEARINGS ON HEALTH CARE
AND COMPETITION LAW AND POLICY

Schedule for May 27, 2003 and May 29-30, 2003 Sessions

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission today released a detailed schedule for the sessions of their joint hearings on health care and competition law and policy to be held May 27, 2003 and May 29-30, 2003. These hearings will be held at the FTC Conference Center at 601 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Washington D.C.

The hearing on May 27, 2003 will begin at 1:30 p.m. and end at approximately 5:00 p.m. On May 29-30, 2003, the morning sessions will begin at 9:15 a.m. and end at approximately 12:30 p.m. The afternoon sessions will begin at 2:00 p.m. and end at approximately 5:00 p.m.

These specific hearings focus on quality and consumer information. The schedule is as follows:

Date Morning Session Topic Afternoon Session Topic
Tuesday, May 27 No session Quality and Consumer Information: Overview
Thursday, May 29 Quality and Consumer Information: Hospitals Quality and Consumer Information: Hospitals
Friday, May 30 Quality and Consumer Information: Physicians Quality and Consumer Information: Physicians

The agencies anticipate they will shortly release a detailed schedule for the sessions of their joint hearings on health care and competition law and policy to be held June 10-12, 2003.

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

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