The Catholic Negotiating Alliance, a network of nine hospital and aged care service providers, has been cleared to collectively negotiate with banks and health funds over terms of service. "Collective negotiation is likely to result in cost savings by reducing the number of negotiations that need to take place and having better informed participants," ACCC commissioner Jill Walker said in a statement yesterday clearing the conduct. The CNA won authorisation for the ability to collectively boycott suppliers to prevent them from "cherry picking" individual members of the group while collective negotiations are underway. "This limited collective boycott conduct will assist the CNA to avoid wasting resources on unproductive collective negotiations," Walker said. The CNA may engage in collective boycotts "in very limited circumstances to address this issue," the ACCC said. Any collective boycott will cease immediately if a supplier chooses not to continue with collective negotiations.