Economics Unit 3 Db

Recent Price Fixing Case : FTC Charges Chicago orbit Doctor Groups with Price FixingPrice fixing is the collusion of two or more businesses or firms to provide their product at a said(prenominal) ( better ) impairment . This appearance is much like the behavior of a cartel or an oligopoly . The damage fixing is performed by the have-to doe with businesses to lessen competition and to protect their bottom lines . With prices at a fixed level , the fixers are sure that they wouldn t be slice by a third party that offers the same written report at a lower toll . This is non beneficial to the consumer as the choice of a lower equal service or product is removed from his or her optionsA recent charge of price fixing was d before the FTC withstand December 29 , 2006 against several organizations that represented around 2 ,9 00 Chicago doctors . The FTC military commission stated that cheer Health Partners (AHP ) and different named corporations unreasonably suppress competition in violation of segmentation 5 of the FTC effect . AHP is a non-profit corporation that is called a topnotch physician-hospital organization in the health care industry . AHP s members include eight Advocate Health Care Network Hospitals . The complaint covered the natural process of AHP in the period from 1995 to 2004Normally , doctors flinch with HMOs and new(prenominal) third party payors to hold the rates and terms of services . Doctors normally are bighearted to lower their prices to attract greater number of paying patients to boot , doctors may also demean into lower priced makes with HMOs . This will alter the HMO to reduce the cost of medical insurance for its subscribers . The contract development between doctors and HMOs is normally decided only by the doctor by himself , without collusion with othe r doctors . This competition results in the ! consumer proceedting the lowest price possibleWhat happened with AHP is that they acted as the negotiator for the doctors that they represent .

They fixed the fees for the services provided by all the doctors under the AHP system . AHP was the nonpareil to create and strengthen contracts with HMOs thus removing the privilege of the respective(prenominal) doctors to dictate their testify determine terms and conditionsAnother charge in the complaint was that in 2002 , AHP alter its members contracts with good-for-naught crabby Shield of Illinois , an HMO operating(a) in the Chicago area . In December 2001 , AHP assay to conduct a c ollective contract with Blue Cross . hitherto during that time , Blue Cross already held psyche contracts with the somebody members of AHP . To fix the situation , AHP solicited from its members agreements that allowed AHP to act as the agents of the doctors in their negotiations with Blue Cross . AHP got a and in October 1 , 2002 change the real agreements of the 1 ,700 members with Blue Cross . AHP then attempt to bring off a new group contract in behalf of the 1 ,700 doctors . This new group contract had a price that is 20 to 30 higher than the original contracts the individual doctors had...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

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