Collective Bargaining by Physicians — Labor Law, Antitrust Law, and Organized Medicine

Collective bargaining has caught the imagination of physicians across the United States. Although physicians' unions have existed since the 1970s, union members have always constituted an extremely small percentage of practicing physicians.1 However, physicians are turning to unions to increase their bargaining power with managed-care organizations. They are also viewing unions as a way to help reclaim their clinical autonomy and to preserve and enhance the quality of care.2 Leading medical organizations are now supporting these efforts to reclaim clinical autonomy and increase reimbursement through collective bargaining. The American Medical Association (AMA), which opposed the idea of physicians' unions for . . .