A Law and Economics Analysis of the Antitrust Treatment of Physician Collective Price Agreements

Physician groups charged with price-fixing are typically prosecuted under civil law rather than criminal law even assuming the per se illegality of such agreements. This paper employs a “law and economics” approach to explain the history and evolution of this legal treatment. It argues that civil enforcement likely reflects a desire to promote efficient risk sharing agreements and/or clinical arrangements that provide benefits to patients — benefits that might be lost or mitigated due to �