Category: Doctors

JGrimes
One of the most contentious front lines in the health-care cost wars is between hospitals and private insurers. That battle zone has gotten particularly hot in recent contract negotiations over reimbursement rates that hospitals are demanding from the insurers.
“We’ve never seen the kind of increases we’re seeing right now” from hospitals, Aetna President […]

JGrimes
It’s getting close to April Fools Day but we’re told this is no joke: It seems that in a bid to cut down on the spread of infections, some British hospitals have taken to telling visitors and their medical staffs not to sit on the beds of patients.
“We are committed to doing all […]

James A. White
Lots of health headlines this morning, most surrounding the Democratic overhaul efforts. Meanwhile, the Senate figured out a way to avoid crimping Medicare payments to doctors.
President Obama kicked things off yesterday by saying he was open to a few cost-saving ideas that Republicans highlighted at last week’s bipartisan health summit. In […]

JGrimes
It’s not a pretty process, but a deal seems to be shaping up to stave of the start of a 21% cut in Medicare fees paid to doctors.
The cuts were due to kick in today because Congress failed to pass a temporary extension as a result of objections by Sen. Jim Bunning to […]

JGrimes
The clock is running out before a 21% cut in Medicare payments to doctors kicks in. Plans to block the reductions have gotten hung up in Congress.
In response, the AMA is telling its members what they can do about the lower payments, including closing their doors to new Medicare patients, CNN reports. […]

noreply@blogger.com (RCoffield@fsblaw.com)
Paper medical records can easily go missing, contain bad or missing information and undermine patient care. But consider the alternative, says Alexander Friedman, a fellow in maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
As a resident fresh out of medical school, Friedman was working an an ememrgency room switching over to electronic […]

noreply@blogger.com (RCoffield@fsblaw.com)
Now that it’s expanded health-insurance coverage to nearly all of its citizens, Massachusetts is trying to figure out what to do about the rapid rise of health costs.
The latest proposal comes from the state’s governor, Deval Patrick, who yesterday proposed a bill that would give the state the power to review — […]

noreply@blogger.com (RCoffield@fsblaw.com)
Look, we know we’ve been writing forever about looming Medicare pay cuts to doctors. So if you’re tired of the subject just stop reading here and scroll down to the next post.
If you’re still reading, you probably already know that Medicare payments to doctors are set to be cut by 21% on […]

noreply@blogger.com (RCoffield@fsblaw.com)
Doctors have a fair bit of freedom in deciding whether to take on a new patient. But once they do, ethics and state licensing rules limit the circumstances when they can drop the patient from their practice, the WSJ’s Melinda Beck explains in her column today.
“You cannot abandon!” a former AMA official […]

noreply@blogger.com (RCoffield@fsblaw.com)
In 2005, Illinois passed a law to cap noneconomic damages in medical malpractice suits. Today, the state’s Supreme Court struck down the law.
The court said the law that established caps — $500,000 in cases against doctors, and $1 million in cases against hospitals — violated the separation of powers clause in the […]