Federal Trade Commission officials said they were going to take a closer look at how physicians negotiate contracts, and it appears they haven't liked what they have seen. In less than two weeks in July, the FTC charged four medical groups with price-fixing and a fifth group with conspiring to fix prices.
The first FTC action came July 9, when the commission filed a complaint against the California Pacific Medical Group Inc., a physician organization in San Francisco that does business as Brown & Toland. The FTC said it is trying to stop the group from what the commission says is unlawful negotiation of PPO contracts on behalf of physician members. The FTC also wants to nullify contracts the group has already negotiated with health plans.
The commission alleges that Brown & Toland organized an arrangement in which its competing member physicians collectively agreed on price and other competitive terms that they required from health plans and other third-party payers before they would sign a contract. The FTC also claims that the group directed its doctors to end existing contracts and to charge a specified price in all PPO contracts.
For more information, go to http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/amnews/pick_03/gvsc0804.htm