Physician collective bargaining bill returns

Organized medicine says the revamped measure would level the playing field; insurers say it invites physicians to form "cartels."

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. March 25, 2002.

Hope is alive again for independent physicians who yearn for collective bargaining rights.

U.S. Reps. Bob Barr (R, Ga.) and John Conyers Jr. (D, Mich.) earlier this month introduced legislation that would loosen federal antitrust laws that prohibit doctors who are not employed physicians from banding together to negotiate contracts with health plans.

The Health Care Antitrust Improvements Act of 2002 would allow two or more independent physicians to bargain together when negotiations promote competition, not hinder it.

If someone challenged whether the negotiations were legal, the Federal Trade Commission would consider competition and patient access to care to decide whether the physicians met that "rule of reason" standard.

Physicians would not be able to strike.

"It's not a fair market, and insurance companies take advantage of that," said Medical Assn. of Georgia President Walker L. Ray, MD, a pediatrician in solo practice. "Two of us in the doctors' lounge can't even talk about fees. I don't believe the antitrust acts were passed with this in mind."

The newly introduced legislation -- which physician organizations back and insurance companies oppose -- is a modified version of a physician antitrust measure the House passed in 2000 but that later died in the Senate because no one stepped up to sponsor it.

The changes in the legislation aim to allay the worries of some senators that the original measure lacked controls. With the exception of not allowing physicians to go on strike or price fix, the earlier version removed all restrictions on physician negotiation. [...]