The purpose of this paper is to review the possible antitrust concerns that could affect the managed care negotiations between payers and providers, merger reviews of health plans, or litigation pitting payers against providers. The paper also provides general guidance about how to tell if these types of concerns reach anticompetitive levels or, in the case of managed care contracting and related litigation, are just the product of the normal give and take of commercial negotiations between parties of varying levels of bargaining strength.

This article was published in the Spring 2002 issue of Antitrust Healthcare Chronicle, the newsletter of the Healthcare Industry Committee of the American Bar Association's Antitrust Section.