Health care as a business

Hospitals invariably require membership on the staff as a prerequisite to the rendition of medical services by a physician to a hospital patient. Nowadays, the physician who is not allowed to practice in a hospital is for all practical purposes denied the opportunity to practice his profession. Much of the recent litigation dealing with medical staff privileges does not allege violations of statutory law, but alleges arbitrary, capricious, and otherwise discriminatory conduct violating due process and equal protection or tortious interference with the physician's business relationship with his patients.