ABSTRACT
In the wake of increased competition for shrinking patient care revenue, antitrust laws pertaining to restraint of trade or unfair competition have become more important to individual physicians and group practice organizations, their administrators, and the physicians they employ because of noticeable increased litigation in this area of law. Many of the antitrust lawsuits now pending pertaining to healthcare are the result of actions £led by individual physicians, groups, and related healthcare organizations against hospitals for denial or revocation of medical staff privileges. In some instances, individual physicians who had been named as coconspirators in these suits were not serving in a hospital committee member capacity. These antitrust actions and the potential for an increase in subversive acts among physiciansprimarily precipitated by competition participation in integrated groups may be little more than “club commiserate” with little or no risk sharing. These days, it is a requirement that physicians and the groups they belong to become highly educated regarding these antitrust laws to reduce their risk of violation.
