Legal Library: Cases and Proceedings

Dentists in three communities in Puerto Rico settled charges that they refused to provide dental services under the government's managed care plan for the indigent unless they received certain prices. Under the terms of the consent order, the dentists are prohibited from jointly boycotting or refusing to deal with any third party payer to obtain higher reimbursement rates for dental services.

A group of physicians in the area of Lake Charles, Louisiana settled charges that they illegally conspired to fix the prices for professional services by engaging in joint price negotiations with third-party payers. The final consent order prohibits such practices but does allow the MDP to engage in legitimate joint conduct.

Columbia MCA paid a $2.5 million civil penalty to settle charges that it failed to divest the Davis Hospital and Medical Center in Layton, Utah, the Pioneer Valley Hospital in West Valley City, Utah and the South Seminole Hospital in Florida as required by a 1995 consent order. The complaint and settlement were filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

A final order prohibits five institutional pharmacies from engaging in any joint price negotiation or price agreements for the provision of prescription drugs in an attempt to maximize reimbursement rates with managed care organizations.

The FTC charged that Fastline Publications, Inc., a Kentucky publisher, and Mid-America Equipment Retailers Association, an Indiana trade association representing farm equipment dealers harmed competition when the publisher entered into agreements with the dealers to ban price advertising for new equipment in an attempt not to disclose those dealers who offered discounted prices.  According to the FTC, the agreements reduced competition among farm equipment dealers and deprived consumers of truthful and nondeceptive price information. The agreement to settle the charges prohibited Fastline and Mid-America from restricting the advertising of prices for farm equipment in the future.