Antitrust and third party insurers

This article surveys major antitrust issues affecting the health care field with particular emphasis on third party insurers. It deals with the most recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court, including Maricopa, Pireno and McCready, involving limitations on the scope of the antitrust exemptions, and the bearing of these decisions on third party insurers, provider agreements, peer review mechanisms, physician control or sponsorship of prepayment plans, joint insurer activities, relative value fee schedules, maximum fee schedules, and area-wide planning. The article challenges the desirability of strict application of antitrust principles to these and other activities within the health care field, stressing that practices with procompetitive and cost containment aspects should be encouraged and analyzed under the rule of reason rather than a per se approach.