Cleveland health care market data included in AMA study – AMA renews its call for U.S. antitrust regulators to increase oversight of health insurers - AMC/NOMA to continue to push for joint negotiation legislation

     Newly released data from the AMA shows that many metropolitan markets and sparsely populated states across the U.S. are dominated by a handful of health insurers. The new data updates a November 2001 AMA study evaluating the competitiveness of U.S. health insurance markets. In September 2002, the AMA
called on the Federal Trade Commission to begin directing its efforts in health care antitrust enforcement to HMOs and health plans, not just physicians.   The AMC/NOMA president was interviewed by the news media regarding the report due to the fact that Cleveland, Ohio was one of the health insurance markets evaluated in the AMA study.  The AMC/NOMA believes that there is a definite need for the U.S. antitrust regulators to increase their oversight of health insurers.  In addition, the AMC/NOMA will continue to push for legislation in Ohio that would allow physicians to jointly negotiate with insurance companies. The power that some insurance plans have is so strong that there is a take-it-or-leave-it mentality.  Physicians need the ability to negotiate with these plans in order to level the playing field.  Read a related story at http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/article/1751-7219.html