Justice Department declares war on doctors
By S.M. Oliva, Guest blogger / May 31, 2010
As I’ve long suspected, “health care reform” has emboldened the Justice Department to take a more active role in enforcing government price controls against physicians. Today the Antitrust Division, joined by Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, forced a a group of Boise orthopedists to accept price controls for worker’s compensation and HMO contracts as part of a settlement accusing the doctors of “price fixing”:
According to the complaint, the conspiring orthopedists engaged in two antitrust conspiracies, which took place from 2006 to 2008. In the first conspiracy, through a series of meetings and other communications, the orthopedists agreed not to treat most patients covered by workers’ compensation insurance.
They entered into a group boycott in order to force the Idaho Industrial Commission to increase the rates at which orthopedists were paid for treating injured workers. The Idaho Industrial Commission sets the fee schedule that determines the amount that orthopedists and other healthcare providers usually receive for treating patients covered by workers’ compensation insurance. The boycott resulted in a shortage of orthopedists willing to treat workers’ compensation patients, causing higher rates for orthopedic services.
In the second conspiracy, all of the defendants, except [one], and other conspiring orthopedists agreed to threaten to terminate their contracts with Blue Cross of Idaho. They jointly threatened to terminate their contracts to force Blue Cross of Idaho to offer better contract terms to orthopedists.
The proposed settlement prevents the Idaho Orthopaedic Society and the named orthopedists from agreeing with their competitors on fees and contract terms. The settlement also prohibits them from collectively denying medical care to patients, refusing to deal with any payer or threatening to terminate contracts with any payer.
This case is a watershed for two reasons:
First, until now the Federal Trade Commission, not the Justice Department, has taken the lead in prosecuting physicians. Since 2000, the FTC has brought about three dozen cases against physicians (all but one of which settled without any trial). But the FTC only has civil and administrative jurisdiction; the Antitrust Division has civil and criminal jurisdiction. The Sherman Act makes no distinction between civil and criminal “price fixing,” so in a case like this, it’s entirely a matter of prosecutorial discretion whether to charge the doctors with a civil or criminal offense.
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How do you keep slaves happy? First, never, ever let the slave have a clue that he/she is a slave! Remind the slave often of his/her “freedom”. Tell the slave that, “..others hate our freedom” and that “we’re fighting for freedom”. Give the slave a vote in a farce called an “election”. The slaves actually think these hand-picked puppets holding office represent the slaves interests. Meanwhile, the slaves body is not his/her own, it belongs to the government. The government is lord and master over these slaves. The government tells the slave what chemicals can be placed in the slaves body. No marijiuanna and alcohol must be limited. The slaves must work at wages set by our masters. These wages are meager and the slave can barely live off of such wages. The slave must work long hours to obtain subsistance. Long hours of work keep the slave busy so he/she doesn’t have time to think about what the masters in Washington DC are planning. A busy slave is a slave that doesn’t ask questions or cause problems. These slaves all belong to our Masters who sit in Israel, the new world capital. American slaves have been dying securing a clear zone around the new world capital. Our leaders are all war crime criminals who should be put on trial for treason and then taken out and shot. Multiple times.