Competition Commission extends private healthcare inquiry timetable

The Competition Commission has extended the timetable for its private healthcare market inquiry, and now plans to start public hearings on February 1, almost a year after they were originally slated to get underway.

It has also extended the deadline for completing its final report from November 15 this year to December 15, 2016. The change is primarily due to the legal challenge brought by Netcare at the start of the inquiry, which had cost the commission almost a year, said the private hospital group's private healthcare inquiry director Clint Oellermann. He noted that some stakeholders had also requested more time. The healthcare inquiry is the first inquiry since the Competition Act was amended to give the commission more powers.

The banking inquiry in 2006 required voluntary co-operation from the banking sector, but this time round the commission has the legal muscle to summons people to testify or to provide documents. One of the key aspects under scrutiny is how prices are determined. Netcare challenged the commission's plan to use the services of accounting and auditing firm KPMG for the inquiry because the firm had done work for the hospital group. Netcare launched its legal challenge in January last year, and it was dismissed by the high court last August. The inquiry had operated on a skeleton staff and made little progress while the litigation was underway, said Oellermann.

He said the scope of the inquiry remained unchanged. The commission had drawn lessons from a similar inquiry that took place in the UK, and had tried to engage with parties to avoid further legal challenges. For example, it had sought comment for its proposed methodology, and had granted deadline extensions where warranted. The commission planned to re-open its call for registration for the public hearings.

While most of the hearings would take place in Pretoria, the commission was considering holding some hearings in other cities, he said. The public hearings would be staggered, and run until the end of May. Oellermann said the commission received 66 public responses to its call for submissions, and subsequently sought information from about 160 parties. The inquiry was assessing how the commission's own decisions, mergers and regulatory changes had affected competition in the private healthcare market. The commission had also directed requests for information at parties that had made submissions containing unsubstantiated claims.

Business Day, 21 October 2015