Collective bargaining bill still alive in Ohio

Physicians and lawmakers press on even though the U.S. House has not acted on federal legislation proposed earlier this year.

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

Despite a negative Federal Trade Commission assessment of their collective bargaining measure, Ohio doctors and lawmakers hope next year to pass legislation that would make the state the fourth in the nation to give independent physicians joint negotiation rights.

The FTC -- in response to a letter from the chair of the Ohio House's Insurance Committee -- said a bill pending before the Ohio House this year amounts to price-fixing and would violate federal antitrust laws.

The Ohio bill is not expected to pass by the end of this year, but a new version is expected to be introduced when the next legislative session begins in 2003.

"This bill is not going away," said Tim Maglione, senior director of government relations for the Ohio State Medical Assn. "There is an inequity between physicians and insurers. ... We will look at the FTC opinion."

Physicians have pushed for collective bargaining rights because they believe insurers have too big of an advantage at the bargaining table. Health plans have opposed changes to antitrust laws.

In a five-page response to Insurance Committee Chair Dennis Stapleton, the FTC said the Ohio bill would increase health care costs and reduce patients' access to care.

"An antitrust exemption simply is not needed, as other approaches are available that would improve quality and protect consumers," Joe Simons, director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, said in a statement.

The commission also said the bill would not protect physicians from federal antitrust laws because it does not give the state enough oversight of the negotiating process. "State economic regulation can immunize private parties from federal antitrust liability, but only where it satisfies the requirements of the state action doctrine," the FTC said in the letter. [...]