(a) The legislature finds that permitting competing physicians to engage in collective negotiation of certain terms and conditions of contracts with a health benefit plan will benefit competition, so long as the physicians do not engage in an express or implied threat of retaliatory collective action, including boycotts or strikes.
(b) The legislature finds that permitting physicians to engage in collective negotiations over fee-related terms may, in some circumstances, yield anticompetitive effects. There are, however, instances in which a health benefit plan dominates the market to the degree that fair negotiations between physicians and the health benefit plan are not possible in the absence of joint action on behalf of the physicians. In those circumstances, the health benefit plan can virtually dictate the terms of the contracts that it offers to physicians.
(c) The legislature finds that it is appropriate and necessary to authorize collective negotiations between competing physicians and health benefit plans when the imbalances in bargaining capacity described in this section exist.
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