Government

Calif. physician group settles in antitrust case

NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted March 8, 2004

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California Pacific Medical Group, which does business as Brown & Toland Medical Group, in February settled Federal Trade Commission charges that it allegedly fixed prices and terms that doctors would accept to treat patients enrolled in a preferred provider organization.

The 1,500-member multispecialty IPA based in San Francisco agreed to a proposed consent agreement that prohibits it from negotiating with payers on behalf of physicians, refusing to deal with payers and setting terms for physicians to deal with payers unless the physicians are clinically or financially integrated. The proposed agreement also calls for some contracts to be terminated.

The agreement applies to the PPO and not to Brown & Toland's network of physicians that contracts with HMOs. A settlement is not an admission of guilt.

Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/03/08/gvbf0308.htm.

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