Competition law continues to play a growing role across the health and care landscape, with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) taking a closer interest in how markets operate for patients, service users and the public. In a recent Mills & Reeve webinar, our competition specialists Kate Newman, Nicola Holmes and Simon Elsegood, joined by health M&A partner Natalie Wade, explored the latest developments and what businesses should be thinking about now.
Health and care as a regulatory priority
The CMA has sharpened its focus on essential spending markets, signalling a shift towards a more proactive role in shaping markets and enforcing standards. This approach, set out in its recently published Annual Plan for 2026–27, places particular emphasis on supporting economic growth, strengthening household prosperity and creating a predictable, pro investment regulatory environment.
The health and care sector sits firmly within this strategic focus where consumers have limited choice or bargaining power, and may be vulnerable due to age, health or income. Recent interventions in other essential services markets, including veterinary services, reinforce the CMA’s intent to improve how consumers navigate these markets and to ensure access to competitive prices and high quality services.
Against this backdrop, providers and investors in health and care should expect sustained and active regulatory attention, spanning both competition and consumer protection. With consumer outcomes firmly at the heart of the CMA’s strategy, the sector is increasingly under the spotlight, making regulatory engagement and compliance a critical commercial consideration.
The CMA’s market study into private dentistry
A central feature of the discussion was the CMA’s recently launched market study into private dentistry. The panel explored why this area has come under scrutiny, including rising prices, pressures on household budgets and ongoing challenges in accessing NHS dentistry, which have shifted greater demand into the private market.
The study is not an enforcement exercise. Instead, it aims to assess whether the market is functioning well for patients, with a particular focus on transparency, information, choice and value for money.
You can read Kate and Nicola’s article on the market study here.
Mergers and acquisitions in the care sector
The panel also examined the CMA’s approach to mergers and acquisitions in the sector. While recent reforms aim to deliver more pace and predictability in merger control, the CMA’s underlying concern remains unchanged: ensuring that transactions do not substantially lessen competition and thereby lead to poor outcomes for consumers. As illustrated by current scrutiny of care home transactions, even smaller deals may impact on competition in local or regional markets and incremental deals may attract attention where they may have a cumulative effect.
You can read our earlier commentary on Welltower’s acquisitions of care homes here.
Beyond pricing and transactions: labour market risks
Finally, the panel highlighted an area that is often underestimated: competition law risks in labour and staffing markets. The CMA has made clear that inappropriate information sharing on pay or recruitment practices can amount to serious breaches, bringing HR and workforce planning firmly into scope.
HR teams are competition law players too and need to understand where collaboration with competitors may cross the line.
You can read our earlier commentary on how competition law impacts on recruitment practices here.
If you’d like to find out more, the webinar recording is available to view here and provides a fuller discussion of the competition law issues explored by the panel.
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