FTC OKs exception to physician collective bargaining rules

A Denver-area IPA hopes to use joint negotiation to improve patient care at a competitive cost; physicians are warned to scrutinize the system before participating.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. March 18, 2002.

The Federal Trade Commission has opened the door for physicians in partially integrated groups to bargain collectively with insurers, lowering the threshold that doctors must meet to negotiate together.

The FTC traditionally required that a group be fully integrated. But last month, in a seven-page letter, the commission told MedSouth Inc., a Colorado-based independent practice association, that it could collectively bargain for a partially integrated group of physicians because the business arrangement doesn't appear as if it would lead to price fixing.

Although the FTC's move isn't a major overhaul of the criteria used to determine which doctors can collectively bargain, it could build into a significant development if MedSouth's system succeeds and the commission grants other partially integrated groups the same freedom.

"This is not a signal that physicians can collectively negotiate," said Jeff Miles, MedSouth's attorney. "This isn't any type of signal that the FTC is letting down its guard of going after groups that have [broken the law]."

But union organizers say it is a positive sign that the commission's stance regarding when it is legal to bargain collectively is still in flux.

"It shows that the way physicians can negotiate isn't written in stone," said Robert L. Weinmann, MD, Union of American Physician and Dentists president.

The revamped MedSouth is a unique combination of features. The IPA will negotiate contracts with insurers for its member physicians, but it also will implement a number of quality initiatives. [...]