More On Physicians And Antitrust Laws

Originally published Healio.com

From international law firm Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP comes a timely column that provides views on current regulatory and legislative topics that weigh on the minds of today's physicians and health care executives.

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As we wrote last month, the antitrust laws are an often overlooked area of risk for physicians, especially when those physicians consider working together or coordinating on competitively sensitive aspects of their practice—particularly pricing.  As noted in our recent article, competitors cannot coordinate on price unless those competitors meet the standards of financial or clinical integration under the antitrust laws. A recent action by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is another reminder that competing physicians must be aware that the antitrust laws limit the extent to which competitors may act jointly and that a failure to consider these limits may expose physicians to the