A broad view of the union question may assist you in this endeavor. I have sketched out below some issues for STS consideration which I hope will provoke interesting debate within your membership. More specifically, many doctors want to increase their bargaining power with respect to managed care companies and major purchasers. As we know, Physicians who banded together to negotiate medical reimbursement rates quickly ran afoul of the Department of Justice and anti-trust law, charged with illegal price fixing. At first glance, labor unions, may appear to offer a model solution to the problem of negotiations between physicians and insurers.
Labor unions enjoy exemption from anti-trust law.
Under these laws, collective bargaining can only take places between employees and employers. Whether or not labor law provides a useful tool for organized medicine therefore depends upon the individual physician's employment situation. Independent contractors are neither employees nor employers. However, if they hold positions of authority within a hospital or teaching facility, they may be found to be supervisory agents of the employer with regard to other staff of that facility. Employed physicians of a private practice, a hospital, an HMO or a government entity may be eligible to form a union under the NLRA or under laws covering public sector workers.