Opinion No. (2001)

BILL LOCKYER Attorney General ANTHONY S. Da VIGO Deputy Attorney General THE HONORABLE HELEN THOMSON, MEMBER OF THE STATE ASSEMBLY, has requested an opinion on the following question: May a corporation charge an annual subscription fee, including a reasonable profit, for furnishing a list of physicians willing to provide medical services at discounted rates to uninsured indigent persons? CONCLUSION A corporation may not charge an annual subscription fee, including a reasonable profit, for furnishing a list of physicians willing to provide medical services at discounted rates to uninsured indigent persons. ANALYSIS It is proposed that a corporation will be formed that would maintain and furnish for a fee a roster of physicians willing to provide medical services to uninsured indigent persons at discounted rates. No fees would be paid by the physicians for being registered. However, the prospective patients would pay an annual subscription fee, included in which would be a reasonable profit, to the corporation for the list. The roster would be informational and nonexclusive, there being no obligation by the uninsured indigents to select from the list. The corporation would not give…