Physicians Propose Forming Union-Like Bargaining Group

The California Medical Assn.’s House of Delegates on Monday proposed the formation of a statewide, union-like group of physicians empowered to call strike actions and bargain collectively with the government and insurance companies over medical services.

Restricted by federal antitrust laws from forming a union outright, 450 delegates voted at their annual meeting to support formation of a physician organization that would act like a union but technically not be one.

“It would function with many of the features of a union,” said Dr. Richard F. Corlin of Santa Monica, the CMA president, during a break from an often-contentious session at the Disneyland Hotel.

The action came as the delegates, who set policy for the 38,000-member physician group, voted to endorse the concept of national budgeting to control spiraling health costs, but only if the Clinton Administration is flexible and brings to the bargaining table all the major players in the health field, including physicians, pharmaceutical firms, insurance companies and others.

The proposal for the physicians’ bargaining unit was contained in a policy statement that sprang from the notion that doctors will be most effective speaking with one voice during negotiations over national cost containment.

“It’s a very rapidly changing environment,” Corlin told reporters after the vote. “As managed care is evolving, and as physician groups are expanding, the entire relationship between the insurers and the physicians is taking on a very different appearance from what it used to be.”

While not mentioning the word strike, the policy statement said the physicians hope to use mediation and binding arbitration but said they did not want to preclude “other appropriate responses when agreement cannot be reached as long as there is provision of ongoing patient care.”