Hospitals in the United States have used exclusive contracts to secure
services, and professional groups have entered into such contracts to
ensure access to a particular health care institution. Recently, for
a variety of reasons, hospitals and management firms have voided these
exclusive contracts. (Physicians insist that an exclusive contract pr
events free access to the marketplace and that the voiding of these co
ntracts deprives them of due process.) Hospitals and management firms
argue that voiding an exclusive contract is an economic decision, that
the physician's hospital privileges are unaffected and that claims of
lack of due process are invalid. In this paper the authors will analy
se several precedent cases to determine whether professional privilege
s and exclusive contracts are interrelated to such a degree that physi
cians should be legally represented in these ''purely'' financial deci
sions. Also at issue is whether these privileges and service contracts
should be considered as one and the same contract.