The Competition Authority has warned that it will examine any complaint alleging anti-competitive behaviour or price fixing by hospital consultants. The warning came as the authority issued new guidelines in respect of collective negotiations relating to the setting of medical fees.
These state that agreements between doctors that fix or constrain the fees doctors or medical practices charge for their services will be considered to be in breach of the Competition Act.
And they state that if doctors collectively withhold services from those who refuse to pay them specific fees, they will be regarded as being involved in a collective boycott, which is also a breach of the Competition Act.
The guidelines stem from an investigation by the Competition Authority in 2005 into the way in which fees for consultants' services were negotiated between the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association (IHCA) on behalf of its members and private health insurers. It ruled the IHCA was in breach of the Competition Act.
The IHCA, which denied it had breached the Act, reached a settlement with the authority and gave undertakings in relation to not negotiating fees for its members. The settlement was reached without an admission of liability.
As part of the settlement, the IHCA sought additional guidance from the authority on complying with the Act. The authority then published a consultation document last January, in which it set out three alternative fee setting mechanisms that were unlikely to breach competition law. One of these included fee setting by the person paying for the service.
It said yesterday it received submissions from a number of parties on this document including the VHI, the IHCA and the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) and they all criticised the three alternative fee setting mechanisms suggested.
"Given the absence of any suggestions in the submissions as to how the permitted fee setting mechanisms outlined in Section 4 of the consultation document could be adapted to work in the State, the Competition Authority has decided to publish a guidance note reiterating what actions are prohibited under the Competition Act," it said.
The guidelines will interest the Irish Pharmaceutical Union, which earlier this week reacted angrily to news that the Health Service Executive will no longer agree through it the fees paid to pharmacists for dispensing drugs to medical card holders.