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...