In its formal comments on the ONC’s Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap, the FTC said the ONC’s plan should include a stronger framework to protect market competition as it moves forward. The success of the plan in the market will depend on its implementation, and market forces will drive innovation, according to the comments.
Standardization may limit competition between technologies because of the technical standards set for interoperability, facilitate customer “lock-in,” reduce competition between standards and impact the methods of selecting standards.
“While standardization can offer many procompetitive benefits, it does so at the expense of distorting marketplace competition between technologies,” the FTC wrote. “Standards — particularly in the information technology and telecommunications industries — are often created through a collaborative standard setting process involving market participants.”
The ONC wrote in its Roadmap that industry stakeholders may be resistant to nationwide interoperability. Simply forcing interoperability may not be in line with economic interests, so the FTC recommended that the ONC further examine why the market forces have already delayed it before taking additional steps.
One strategy proposed in the Roadmap suggested implementing policy and funding levers to create a business imperative and clinical demand for interoperability. The FTC said that while success is possible through this approach, innovation thrives when market forces drive the changes rather than regulations. Industry stakeholders banding together to advance interests can sometimes turn into an antitrust compact, but the FTC said that with proper oversight, collectively setting standards lowers switching costs and barriers to entry, which encourages innovation and competition.
