The Bundeskartellamt has launched a sector inquiry into the hospital service to examine and analyse competitive conditions in the sector. In the light of increasing consolidation the authority frequently has to deal with planned mergers between different hospital operators. The sector inquiry also serves to further develop examination criteria for the authority's merger control proceedings.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: "Merger control in the hospital sector guarantees competition on quality. It also complements regulation in the health sector. Here too, competition is still the best driver of quality. The aim of the sector inquiry is to obtain information about the current market situation and intensity of competition in acute inpatient hospital treatment. Apart from municipal and non-profit operators, privately run companies are also active in the sector, which have strongly increased in size within the last twenty years. During this time the number of individual hospitals has fallen, some of which have formed regional groups. In addition, there are few operators which are active nationwide. Each hospital location is subject to state hospital planning and several more regulations, e.g. under social law. The analysis will focus in particular on market structure as well as the management possibilities of the hospitals in view of the state regulations."

Another aim of the competitive assessment will be to determine what factors influence patients in their choice of hospital and how hospitals try to set themselves apart from their competitors in terms of the services and areas of specialisation or quality management which they offer. The inquiry will also look into the role of various stakeholders such as medical staff, referring physicians or emergency services. It will finally also examine remuneration structures and the financial situation of the hospitals.

The Bundeskartellamt will question around 500 hospitals across the country. The hospitals selected give a representative picture of the hospital landscape in Germany in terms of geographical location, size and type of operator. After evaluating the data collected the Bundeskartellamt will summarise the results in a report.