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16770

BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONS CODE
SECTION 16770

16770.  (a) It is the intent of the Legislature to ensure that the
citizens of this state receive high-quality health care coverage in
the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible.
   (b) In furtherance of this intent, the Legislature finds and
declares that it is in the public interest to enhance the ability of
California purchasers, providers, and payers to form efficient-sized
bargaining units for the purpose of contracting for the delivery of
health care services.
   (c) This Legislature has previously demonstrated its intent in
this area by the recent enactment of Chapters 328, 329, and 1594 of
the Statutes of 1982 authorizing various types of contracts to be
entered into between public or private purchasers or payers of health
care coverage, and institutional or professional providers of health
care services.
   (d) The Legislature further finds and declares that individual
providers or purchasers, whether institutional, professional, or
otherwise, have not proven to be efficient-sized bargaining units for
these contracts, and that the formation of groups and combinations
of institutional and professional providers and purchasing groups for
the purpose of creating efficient-sized contracting units represents
a meaningful addition to the health care marketplace.
   (e) The Legislature, however, recognizes that the 1982 decision of
the United States Supreme Court in Arizona v. Maricopa Medical
Society serves as a disincentive to the development of contracting
for health care services because purchasers, providers, and payers
who enter into contracts bear the risk of being found guilty of
committing per se antitrust violations.
   (f) The Legislature further finds and declares that the public
interest in ensuring that citizens of this state receive high-quality
health care coverage in the most efficient and cost-effective manner
possible is furthered by permitting negotiations for alternative
rate contracts between purchasers or payers of health care services,
and institutional and professional providers, or through a person or
entity acting for, or on behalf of, a purchaser, payer, or provider.
   (g) It is the intent of the Legislature, therefore, that the
formation of groups and combinations of providers and purchasing
groups for the purpose of creating efficient-sized contracting units
be recognized as the creation of a new product within the health care
marketplace, and be subject, therefore, only to those antitrust
prohibitions applicable to the conduct of other presumptively
legitimate enterprises.
   These provisions are in addition to those provided for under
Section 1342.6 of the Health and Safety Code and Section 10133.6 of
the Insurance Code.
   (h) This section does not change existing antitrust law as it
relates to any agreement or arrangement to exclude from any of the
above-described groups or combinations, any person who is lawfully
qualified to perform the services to be performed by the members of
the group or combination, where the ground for the exclusion is
failure to possess the same license or certification as is possessed
by the members of the group or combination.