The Antitrust

As the health care industry continues to move from traditional fee-for-service arrangements to managed-care concepts and organizations, health care providers have formed various types of networks. Like any combination of competitors, physician networks run the risk of violating the antitrust laws. While these organizations are fairly new, guidelines from the government and a review of the first generation of antitrust cases provide several important "dos" and "don'ts" for physician networks.

Department of Justice/Federal Trade Commission Guidelines

The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are the two federal agencies charged with the duty of enforcing our antitrust laws. Faced with the challenge of monitoring novel distribution arrangements in the evolving health care market, the agencies have issued joint Guidelines to advise the industry of types of arrangements that are likely to undergo antitrust scrutiny. The Guidelines, most recently revised in 1994,