FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 1996                            (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888


      JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WILL NOT CHALLENGE PROPOSAL TO FORM
               NETWORK OF ALLERGISTS IN NEW ENGLAND

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice today said
that it would not challenge a proposal by a group of New England
allergists to form a physician network joint venture to offer
their services in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.  
     The network, called Allergy and Asthma Consultants Inc.,
would negotiate and contract with health benefit plans to provide
their beneficiaries with physician medical services for the
treatment of allergies, asthma and related conditions.
     The Department's Antitrust Division said that the proposed
network's activities fall within the "safety zone" established by
the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission's
Statements of Enforcement Policy and Analytical Principles
Relating to Health Care and Antitrust that were issued in
September 1994.  
     The Department's position was stated in a business review
letter from Anne K. Bingaman, Assistant Attorney General in
charge of the Antitrust Division, to counsel for the joint
venture.
     The physician members of the joint venture comprise
approximately 10 percent of the approximately 92 practicing
allergists in Massachusetts.  
     The network will involve significant integration and risk
sharing, and include utilization review and quality assurance
monitoring.  Each Allergy and Asthma Consultants contract with
health benefit plans will provide for physician services
compensation either in the form of a capitated payment or under a
discounted fee-for-service schedule for its member physicians
with a "risk pool" withhold of at least 20 percent of the fees
due each physician.  The withhold will be retained by the network
or distributed to the participating physicians only if the panel
of doctors as a group meets established efficiency and quality
parameters.
     Allergy and Asthma Consultants' physician providers will
participate in the network on a non-exclusive basis.  Individual
member providers will be able to affiliate and contract directly
with competing multi-specialty networks, primary care groups,
independent practice organizations, physician hospital
organizations, managed care plans, and other third party payers.
     The proposal involves additional provisions that reduce the
possibility of anticompetitive effects, including provisions
relevant to a previously entered consent decree between the
United States and one of the initial participants in Allergy
Asthma Consultants.  As a result, the network has the potential
to benefit its member physicians, managed care plans and their
enrollees through efficiencies that may result from payers'
ability to contract with a group of providers through a single
representative and from utilization review and quality assurance
monitoring.  
     Under the Department's business review procedure, an
organization may submit a proposed action to the Antitrust
Division and receive a statement as to whether the Division will
challenge the action under the antitrust laws.  
     A file containing the business review request and the
Department's response may be examined in the Legal Procedure Unit
of the Antitrust Division, Room 215 North, Liberty Place,
Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. 20530.  After a 30-day
waiting period, the documents supporting the business review will
be added to the file.
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96-121