Antitrust implications of allied health practitioner privilege decisions and hospital-physician exclusive contracts

The Health Care Quality Improvement Act, which often protects hospitals and medical staffs from damages resulting from physician credentialing decisions, offers no protection for (1) credentialing decisions affecting allied health practitioners or (2) challenges to exclusive contract between physicians and hospitals. Since many antitrust-health care actions have involved those two situations, antitrust litigation in those areas is not likely to decline. This article outlines steps that hospitals and their medical staffs can take to minimize the antitrust risks in awarding exclusive contracts and in decisions regarding the credentialing of allied practitioners.