Why do physicians need to be concerned about antitrust?
RA: Health care is treated like any other business under antitrust laws. Physician practices need to be concerned about how they re affected by antitrust and how their conduct can affect others. Antitrust laws protect competition, that is, they prevent unlawful monopolies, price fixing, combinations in restraint of trade, concerted boycotts. Any conduct that reduces or eliminates competition is generally prohibited under antitrust laws. There are essentially four problem areas for physicians: relationships with payors, IPAs, practice mergers and staff privileges. With relationships with payors, examples would be the ability to negotiate collectively and have an influence over the business aspects providing services. Another example would be most favored nations clauses, where it s evident that physicians have lost income because they are prevented from having the ability to negotiate lower rates with some payors that don t necessarily dominate the marketplace. The problem area of IPAs
