Rx for Doctors

Advertise, says FTC judge

Lawyers do it. Engineers do it. Druggists and optometrists now do it. And if Judge Ernest G. Barnes has his way, doctors will soon be doing it too. Doing what? Advertising.

Barnes, an administrative law judge for the Federal Trade Commission, last week ruled that the American Medical Association's code of ethics illegally restrains competition among doctors by preventing them from advertising. That policy, said the judge, has resulted in virtual price fixing, deprived consumers of the information they need in selecting a doctor and "stifled the rise of almost every type of health care delivery that could potentially pose a threat to the income of fee-for-service physicians in private practice."

In the decision, which stems from a 1975 FTC complaint against the A.M.A. and two Connecticut member societies, Barnes ordered the association to "cease and desist" from prohibiting advertising. He also ruled that after a two-year interim, the A.M.A. could issue a new set of ethical guidelines on advertising but only "after first obtaining the permission and approval of the FTC."

Barnes' ruling must still be approved by the FTC commissioners, after which doctors will be able to start hiring copywriters. The A.M.A. will appeal the order. Dr. Robert B. Hunter, chairman of the A.M.A.'s board of trustees, noted that the organization's code does not prohibit advertising, only solicitation of patients. The distinction: ads provide pertinent information such as type of practice, office hours, and even the schedule of fees; solicitation involves self-laudatory or fraudulent claims, or patients' testimonials. The prohibition, says the A.M.A., is meant to protect the public from unscrupulous hucksters or quacks.

The A.M.A. was particularly outraged by Barnes' order that future ethical guidelines first get the FTC O.K. Said Hunter: "There is no legal precedent in the United States for the federal bureaucracy to write or approve a code of ethics for any of the learned professions."

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