Medical Board Wins Appeal of Antitrust Suit Over Credentials

The American Board of Internal Medicine persuaded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Thursday to uphold its victory against claims that it uses its monopoly on the physician specialty credentialing process to squeeze renewal fees out of doctors with no alternative.

The internists leading the antitrust lawsuit “argue that they are ‘forced’ to purchase” the renewals, called “maintenance of certification,” because of the “economic reality” that they’re unlikely to be hired without them, Judge Joseph A. Greenaway Jr. wrote for the court.

But the facts “suggest” they were “able to resist the economic pressures,” Greenaway said. ...