As a result of recent amendments, the California Chamber of Commerce has removed SB 538 (Monning; D-Carmel), dealing with hospital contracts, from the job killer list.
Before the June 11 amendments, CalChamber had identified the bill as a job killer because SB 538 unfairly and unlawfully discriminated against arbitration agreements by restricting the formation of antitrust arbitration agreements in hospital contracts, which would have led to costly litigation over preemption by the Federal Arbitration Act.
Even with the long line of cases consistently ruling in favor of arbitration, SB 538, if enacted, would likely have led to many legal challenges regarding its validity, which only would have resulted in more litigation tying up the court system, increasing litigation costs and driving businesses out of business.
Although CalChamber supports efforts to reduce and address rising health care costs, it opposes any measure that undermines or disfavors arbitration as the elimination of arbitration in health care contracts will only increase health care costs and lead to confusion, uncertainty and costly litigation for such contracts.
As a result of the amendments, CalChamber has no position on SB 538.
For more information on the remaining job killer bills, visit www.CAJobKillers.com.
