(1) The general assembly hereby finds, determines, and declares that the rapidly changing health care market provides unique opportunities for health care providers to organize themselves into new forms of collaborative systems to deliver high quality health care at competitive market prices to cooperatives and other purchasers. This part 3 is enacted to encourage such collaborative arrangements and to further market-based competition among health care providers.
The general assembly further recognizes that in order to achieve the most effectiveuse of resources and medical technology to respond to changing market conditions, providers who would otherwise be competitors with each other will need to horizontally integrate in order to develop collaborative arrangements to guarantee an adequate number of providers to service the market and to vertically integrate in order to guarantee that those who receive services will have a continuum of care as appropriate to their care needs.
The general assembly also recognizes that to effect such new forms of collaborativesystems and integration of providers to service the market will require an analysis of existing methods of providing services, contracting, collaborating, and networking among providers and the extent and type of regulatory oversight of licensed provider networks or licensed individual providers which is appropriate to protect the public.
Source: L. 94: Entire article added, p. 1937, § 1, effective July 1.