RESPONSES / COMMENTS (NON-CLINICAL) - PART 2

07/29/2010     

RE: Criminalizing Doctors - Yet Again
From: Bob Kornfeld, DPM

News has just broken that the US Department of Justice, together with the Idaho Attorney General (note that this is a bipartisan operation), charged a group of Boise orthopedists with a criminal violation of the antitrust laws. What had they actually done? They got together and discussed what to do about the very low fees offered by the State Workers Compensation Program.

Result: thoroughly intimidated doctors signed a draconian ten-year consent decree agreeing to accept the Idaho Industrial Commissions’ price controls. Most of the doctors also agreed to rescind any threats of withdrawing from Blue Cross of Idaho. Keep in mind that Blue Cross is a private insurance company. As such, it is itself exempt from antitrust laws. And state and federal governments are also exempt. It is just the doctors who are subject to it.

If doctors met together and decided what to charge...

Editor's note: Dr. Kornfeld's extended-length letter can be read here.