The growth of antitrust litigation in the health care area reflects the developing consensus that competition is as powerful a force in health care as it is elsewhere in the economy. Exclusive contracts between hospitals and hospital-based physician specialists have been prominent among the contested practices. Challenges to these arrangements uniformly assert an injury to competition; for example, that the contracts are a means of gaining monopoly power in some market. But these claims have lacked a solid theoretical basis for general hostility to exclusive dealing of this sort. This article describes several economic considerations that are fundamental to an analysis of this contractual phenomenon. These considerations imply that there is no general economic basis for suspicion, and that the circumstances under which suspicion would be warranted are likely to be rare.
Article navigation
Research Article|April 01 1984
Restraint of Trade Through Hospital Exclusive Contracts: An Economic Appraisal of the Legal Theory
J Health Polit Policy Law (1984) 9 (2): 269-279.
- Views Icon Views
-
CiteCitation
William J. Lynk; Restraint of Trade Through Hospital Exclusive Contracts: An Economic Appraisal of the Legal Theory. J Health Polit Policy Law 1 April 1984; 9 (2): 269–279. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-9-2-269
Download citation file:
× - Share Icon Share
- Search
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.
Advertisement