Houston Partner Susan Feigin Harris authored “Antitrust Issues of Patient-Centered Medical Homes,” an article that appeared in the August 30, 2010, issue of Health Law360. In the article, Harris describes medical homes as “a health care setting that fosters partnerships between individual patients and their personal physicians and, when appropriate, the patient’s family. Care is facilitated by registries, information technology, health information exchange and other means to assure that patients receive the indicated care when and where they need it and want it in an appropriate manner.”
Harris further explains how antitrust issues can come into play in these settings: “Generally, antitrust law treats 'naked agreements’ among competitors that fix prices or allocate markets as per se illegal. The Sherman Act prohibits agreements that unreasonably restrain competition. When collaborative ventures are created between otherwise competing entities, lawyers seek to assure that the collaborative venture is not evaluated under the per se illegality test, but rather that the venture contains the essential criteria or indicia worthy of evaluation under what is known as the ‘rule of reason’ test of the Sherman Act, and that such venture would, in fact, withstand such an evaluation.”
In the case of a medical home, she points out that there would be an examination of “whether the integration is sufficient to satisfy the pro-competitive effect test of the rule of reason under the Sherman Act. If so, antitrust is no barrier. If integration is not sufficient and competition is significantly reduced, then antitrust may become a barrier.”
Harris also notes that existing regulatory guidance and comments from agency officials can help providers and their legal counsel navigate these issues when examining the possibility of creating a medical home.
At Baker Hostetler, Harris focuses her practice on providing comprehensive legal services to health industry clients.
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