The new economic credentialing: protecting hospitals from competition by medical staff members

This Article addresses hospitals' use of economic criteria to determine an individual's qualifications for staff privileges. Hospitals are resorting to economic conflict-of-interest credentialing policies in an attempt to ensure physician's loyalty and maintain their own economic viability. Physicians, however, argue that entrepreneurial activities are necessary for them to meet the economic challenges posed by declining reimbursements and rising insurance costs. The Article surveys the numerous legal theories that physicians (and, in some cases, the federal government) could employ in attacking these new types of credentialing policies and concludes that, on balance, hospitals should be able to implement their policies in ways that minimize liability in most jurisdictions. The Article concludes by discussing other issues that economic credentialing policies raise, including those implicating tax-exempt status and nonlegal considerations.