Hospital-physician collaboration and competition: the antitrust connection

Antitrust issues are surfacing in many kinds of relationships between physicians and hospitals. Although uncertainty still exists regarding the legality of many of these relationships, it is becoming increasingly clear that when a hospital and its medical staff attempt to improve their revenue position at the expense of other providers, the limits of their actions are constrained by antitrust laws. Also, when a hospital competes with physicians, several types of hospital-physician "understandings" could be challenged.