The issue of independent physicians organizing and engaging in collective bargaining came before the Supreme Court in 1943 -- and the doctors lost. Labor unions engaged in collective bargaining are exempted from the anti-trust laws (forbidding price-fixing by competitors). But the Court found that the labor laws protect "disputes affecting the employer-employee relationship", and that they were not meant to have "application to disputes over the sale of commodities." Physicians in today's proposed unions are not and do not want to be anyone's employees. Rather, they want more bargaining power in the sale of the service they are providing, but that is not a legal justification for an agreement on price among competitors.
Sorry for the fancy legalese. My sister is an attorney and regularly shoots down my grand schemes.
