FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 25, 1999

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
Kelley Elwood, 312/580-6497

Physicians: Collective Bargaining Will
Uphold Health Care Quality

Oak Brook - Illinois physicians will work toward establishment of collective bargaining units in order to regain their control over patient care and protect the patient-doctor relationship, as a result of action taken at the 1999 meeting of the House of Delegates of the Illinois State Medical Society, which concluded here today.

"Doctors are speaking with a single, clear voice. The onerous conditions and regulations forced on us by insurance companies, hospital management and government are crippling our ability to give our patients the care they need," said Clair M. Callan, M.D., newly-installed President of the 15,000-member Society. "We will use all the organizing tools at our disposal to band together and restore our professionalism,"

Dr. Callan said that collective organizing was gaining favor among physicians as a response to the growth of managed care restrictions. "Individual physicians have limited market power to fight large, deep-pocketed insurance companies or the government. There is a growing recognition that our individual ability to practice good medicine for our patients will rely on our collective action."

"Doctors need to move ahead, through their professional organizations, in using the tools of federal labor law, to make ourselves heard on the key quality issues that demand our expertise," said Dr. Callan, an anesthesiologist from Lake Forest. "We need to force big insurance, big hospital organizations, and government to the negotiating table.

"We need to do this without subjecting our patients to the threat of strikes that would disrupt their care. Only our professional organizations, such as ISMS, can lead us there while assuring patient care remains the top priority," she concluded.

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