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<tr><td><b>Comment Number: </b></td><td>546725-00007</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Received: </b></td><td>2/10/2010 10:09:08 AM</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Organization: </b></td><td></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Commenter: </b></td><td>Tim Gorski </td></tr>

<tr><td><b>State: </b></td><td>TX</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Agency: </b></td><td>Federal Trade Commission</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rule: </b></td><td>Proposed Consent Agreement In the Matter of Roaring Fork Valley Physicians I.P.A., Inc.; FTC File No. 061 0172 </td></tr>

<tr><td>No Attachments</tr></Table>

<hr><P><b>Comments:</b></p>This action doesn't make sense because Medicare's fee schedule is itself an instrument of price-fixing. For this IPA to insist on *not* beginning negotiations on contracts using the fee schedule is a step *away* from price-fixing. And asking for COLA provisions, likewise, simply recognizes the need for sustainable contracts which, again, is the *opposite* of linking fees to the Medicare price-fixing scheme which, under the current SGR, results in substantial automatic and arbitrary *cuts* in payments for medical services. This action is not consistent with the spirit and intent of the anti-trust laws. Those laws are legitimately applied to situations like the ADM price-fixing that happened some years ago in which ADM and some overseas firms met to fix prices. Here the price-fixing is contained in the Medicare fee schedule.


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