Attorney General Neronha enhances health care market oversight

Attorney General Neronha enhances health care market oversight

Published on Thursday, January 29, 2026

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha announced today that the Office has issued a regulationrequiring pre-merger notification for certain transactions involving medical practice groups, including those involving private equity firms. Pursuant to the Office's regulatory and antitrust authorities, this regulation enables the Office to review and investigate potentially anticompetitive transactions to prevent excessive market consolidation, slow the growth of health care prices, and protect the quality of care.

"Rhode Island's health care system faces challenges on many fronts," said Attorney General Neronha. "But first and foremost, it is a crisis of access. Rhode Islanders everywhere struggle to find quality health care, especially primary care. At the same time, private equity and increasing market consolidation drive up the cost of care, further inhibiting patient access. This regulation gives my Office a bird's eye view to ensure that future medical group mergers do not harm Rhode Islanders' access to health care services. For our part, we will continue to pull the levers available to us to ensure that all Rhode Islanders have unencumbered access to affordable, quality health care."

The growing roles of consolidation and private equity in the health services industry calls for strengthened reporting requirements to ensure that the Attorney General's Office, Rhode Island's primary antitrust regulator, is notified of potentially harmful transactions. To help combat the ever-increasing market concentration and rising costs in health care, the Office issued this regulation requiring Rhode Island based medical-practice groups to notify the Attorney General's Office of any merger, consolidation, or acquisition that would result in (1) ownership or control by a private equity investor; (2) a group of eight or more physicians, physician assistants, and/or nurse practitioners; or (3) the establishment of a management services organization or similar contracting entity responsible for administering a medical group's contracts with health insurance carriers or third-party administrators.

The application requires basic information from the parties, anticipated changes to services and locations, and anticipated impacts on reimbursement rates, care referral patterns, access to health care services, and quality of care.

The promulgation of this regulation follows an eight-month rulemaking process. The Office released a Public Notice of Proposed Rulemakingon May 28, 2025. The Office then held a public hearing on the proposed rule on July 8, 2025, and accepted public comment - either in person, online, or via email - until July 23, 2025. Incorporating the feedback from public comments, the Office submitted a revised version of the regulation for final approval by the Rhode Island Secretary of State's Office in early January 2026. The regulation is effective January 28, 2026.

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