JUSTICE DEPARTMENT APPROVES HOTEL EMPLOYEES UNION PROPOSAL
TO EXCHANGE INFORMATION TO HEALTH CARE PROVIDER

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A proposal by a hotel employees union to provide information to a preferred health care provider organization was approved today by the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. The Department said that the information exchange could potentially enable physicians to make more informed decisions about selling their services to the union.

The Antitrust Division approved a proposal by the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union Welfare Fund, Fund Unit 150, to provide an historical claims report to the preferred provider organization with which it contracts to provide health coverage to the unit's participants.

Today's action is part of an Administration effort, unveiled in September 1993, to encourage innovative arrangements to make health care available to more employees at a reasonable cost.

The Department' s approval of the proposal was stated in a business review letter to the group's counsel from Anne K. Bingaman, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division. The Justice Department is available to state its enforcement intention concerning proposed business conduct with antitrust implications.

Bingaman said, "This limited information exchange has the potential to enable individual physicians to make more informed decisions about selling their services to the Welfare Fund."

Under the Department's business review procedure, an organization may submit a proposed action to the Antitrust Division and receive a statement as to whether the Division will challenge the action under the antitrust laws.

A file containing the business review request and the Department's response may be examined in the Legal Procedure Unit of the Antitrust Division, Room 3235, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. 20530. After a 30 day waiting period, the documents supporting the business review will be added to the file.

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