Frank Pallone: “I rise in support of the Quality Health Care Coalition Act. It is a good piece of legislation and I urge all of my…”

“I rise in support of the Quality Health Care Coalition Act. It is a good piece of legislation and I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting it. As you know, Mr. Chairman, current anti-trust law prohibits health care professionals, including doctors, dentists, pharmacists, and nurses from banding together to negotiate with managed care organizations. Although this prohibition alone has stacked the deck against health care professionals seeking to protect both themselves and their patients from managed care abuse, consolidations in the health insurance industry have exacerbated this imbalance even further over the last several years. To complement the enhanced negotiating power they have accrued through mergers and acquisitions, managed care organizations also use exclusionary contracting practices to bully health care professionals into accepting terms they surely would not accept if they were able to negotiate on a level playing field. These trends have enabled insurers to employ a 'take it or leave it' approach when negotiating with health care professionals. As a result, the doctor-patient relationship has been compromised and the quality of care for all patients has suffered. I have heard many first hand accounts of these abusive practices from the New Jersey Medical Society, the New Jersey Pharmacists Association, and countless other physicians with whom I have met over the last several years. We must put an end to them.”