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Article: Price-fixing probe; FTC investigates three N.M. hospitals and their IPAs.(The Week In Healthcare)(Federal Trade Commission)(independent practice associations)
- Article from:
- Modern Healthcare
- Article date:
- April 19, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Crain Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Mark Taylor
Three rural hospitals and three independent practice associations in New Mexico have been snared in a 2-year-old national Federal Trade Commission probe investigating alleged physician price-fixing, Modern Healthcare has learned.
When he took office in 2001, FTC Chairman Timothy Muris vowed to attack anticompetitive healthcare industry practices, in particular collective bargaining by otherwise competing providers. In the past two years, the FTC has filed antitrust complaints against 15 independent practice associations, or IPAs, and physician hospital organizations, or PHOs, and signed consent decrees with 13.
That FTC ...