50-4-601. Finding and purpose. The legislature finds that the goals of controlling health care costs and improving the quality of and access to health care will be significantly enhanced in some cases by cooperative agreements and by mergers and consolidations among health care facilities and physicians licensed to practice medicine under Title 37, chapter 3. The purpose of this part is to provide the state, through the department, with direct supervision and control over the implementation of cooperative agreements, mergers, and consolidations among health care facilities and physicians licensed to practice medicine under Title 37, chapter 3, for which certificates of public advantage are granted. It is the intent of the legislature that supervision and control over the implementation of these agreements, mergers, and consolidations substitute state regulation of facilities and physicians licensed to practice medicine under Title 37, chapter 3, for competition between facilities and physicians licensed to practice medicine under Title 37, chapter 3, and that this regulation have the effect of granting the parties to the agreements, mergers, or consolidations state action immunity for actions that might otherwise be considered to be in violation of state or federal, or both, antitrust laws.

     History: En. Sec. 37, Ch. 606, L. 1993; amd. Sec. 12, Ch. 378, L. 1995; amd. Secs. 1, 10, Ch. 526, L. 1995.