[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1765 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1765

  To exempt from the antitrust laws, mergers and service allocations 
       entered into by certain hospitals in low population areas.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 21, 1993

   Mr. Slattery (for himself, Mr. Synar, Mr. Thomas of Wyoming, Mr. 
Roberts, Mr. Bereuter, and Mr. Stenholm) introduced the following bill; 
          which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To exempt from the antitrust laws, mergers and service allocations 
       entered into by certain hospitals in low population areas.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE

    This Act may be cited as the ``Hospital Antitrust Fairness Act''.

SEC. 2. ANTITRUST EXEMPTION.

    The antitrust laws shall not apply with respect to--
            (1) the combination of, or the attempt to combine, 2 or 
        more hospitals,
            (2) a contract entered into solely by 2 or more hospitals 
        to allocate hospital services, or
            (3) the attempt by only 2 or more hospitals to enter into a 
        contract to allocate hospital services.
If each of such hospitals satisfies all of the requirements of section 
3 at the time such hospitals engage in the conduct described in 
paragraph (1), (2), or (3), as the case may be.

SEC. 3. REQUIREMENTS.

    The requirements referred to in section 1 are as follows:
            (1) The hospital is located outside of a city, or in a city 
        that has less than 150,000 inhabitants, as determined in 
        accordance with the most recent data available from the Bureau 
        of the Census.
            (2) In the most recently concluded calendar year, the 
        hospital received more than 40 percent of its gross revenue 
        from payments made under Federal programs.
            (3) There is in effect with respect to the hospital a 
        certificate issued by the Health Care Financing Administration 
        specifying that such Administration has determined that Federal 
        expenditures would be reduced, and consumer costs would not 
        increase, if the 2 or more hospitals that request such 
        certificate merge, or allocate the hospital services specified 
        in such request, as the case may be.

SEC. 3. DEFINITION.

    For purposes of this Act, the term ``antitrust laws'' has the 
meaning given such term in subsection (a) of the first section of the 
Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 12), except that such term includes section 5 of 
the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45) to the extent that such 
section 5 applies with respect to unfair methods of competition.

                                 <all>