News: Medical Malpractice Insurance and Physician Practices

By Elizabeth Cooney
http://www.boston.com/

Despite assertions that high malpractice rates are driving them out of the state, Massachusetts doctors are paying less than they were in 1990, after adjusting for inflation, according to a Suffolk University Law School study.

Massachusetts ranks fourth in the nation for money paid to settle malpractice cases and is one of 21 states described by the American Medical Association as being in a crisis because of high medical malpractice payments and lack of strict laws capping settlements.

Such high payments would seem to predict high premiums, but the Suffolk study, appearing in the current issue of Health Affairs, found that most Massachusetts physicians paid an average of $17,810 in premiums in 2005, a little lower than the $17,907 that the same coverage would have cost in 1990, after adjusting for inflation. Read the rest of this entry »

Paul A. Nutting, MD, MSPH, Associate Editor
http://www.annfammed.org/

Family medicine has entered a fascinating period of transition and rebirth. In 2004 the Annals was pleased to publish the Future of Family Medicine (FFM) report¹ and to track the rich discussion of family physicians in practice, academia, research, and policy.² The FFM report quickly spawned the TransforMED National Demonstration Project (NDP), supported by the American Academy of Family Physicians (http://www.transformed.com/ and http://www.trans-formed.com/ndp.cfm). The NDP recruited 36 family practices selected from an applicant pool of more than 300 across the United States. For evaluation purposes, the practices were randomized to intervention and self-directed groups. During a 2-year period, the intervention group has been receiving intensive assistance from an NDP facilitator, access to consultants, discounted support in implementing information technology, and 3 retreats for sharing experiences. The self-directed comparison group has access to information about the improvement tools from the NDP Web site, but no hands-on facilitation, access to consultants, or the practice retreats. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.news-medical.net/

Giving physicians cash payments for reduced hospital spending can help control costs without sacrificing quality or access to care, researchers report in a study released today in the May/June 2008 issue of the journal Health Affairs. The issue is a thematic volume on health reform supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

In a five-year study of more than 220,000 patients, Arizona State University researchers showed that “gainsharing” programs, in which physicians are paid for reducing hospital spending, cut costs by 7.4 percent or $315 per patient. If these experiences are representative, nationwide use of gainsharing would cut hospital costs for coronary stent patients by about $195 million a year, the researchers say. Read the rest of this entry »

http://canadianpress.google.com

EDMONTON — After they spend about 10 minutes with him in the emergency room, Jack Buchanan’s patients often end up calling him doctor.

He wears a big name tag with his title - physician assistant - and always explains that he’s there to help the doctor, not take over. But some people don’t immediately understand the difference.

“After about five hours of waiting, they just want to be seen.”

Physician assistants are one way that governments across Canada could stretch the dwindling number of family doctors and specialists to tend to a growing population. Read the rest of this entry »

By Michelle Rupe Eubanks
http://www.timesdaily.com/

A beautiful view and low cost of living - that’s what the Shoals has to offer young doctors looking for a place to set up practice.

Compared to the heavy patient loads and poor reimbursement rates they’ll face once they relocate, the trade-off appears to be more than many care to make. As a result, the Shoals is on track to face a serious shortage of primary care physicians as many doctors retire.

It’s a problem medical care providers in northwest Alabama understand, but not one easily conquered. Read the rest of this entry »

By Stephen Moore
http://online.wsj.com

For most of the past 30 years, Mississippi has ranked as one of the poorest as well as one of the most litigious states. The two statistics are related.

I met with Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour recently, and this politician, best known for helping his state rebuild after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, had a lot to say about lawsuits.

“We were America’s No. 1 judicial hell hole for jackpot jury verdicts,” the two-term Republican governor told me. “For trial lawyers, this was the state you wanted to come to if you wanted to sue someone.” Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com 

The American Medical Association (AMA) urged Congress to take immediate action to avert looming Medicare physician payment cuts that will harm seniors’ access to care in testimony to the House Small Business Committee. AMA Board Member Cecil Wilson, MD, highlighted the impact the cuts will have on the many physicians who are small business owners.

“There’s no doubt that the Medicare cuts will hurt seniors as physicians are forced to make practice changes to keep their medical practice doors open,” said Dr. Wilson. “Half of the physician practices in the nation have less than five physicians, yet they account for 80 percent of all patient visits to the doctor’s office.” Read the rest of this entry »

By Dave Hansen
http://www.ama-assn.org

In 2004, President Bush set a goal of most Americans using an electronic medical record by 2014. In his vision, doctors by then would be using EMR systems with interoperable standards that would allow them to share lab results, images, computerized orders and prescription information with hospitals and other health facilities.

So how much progress has been made in the past four years? Not nearly enough, many EMR experts say.

The nation’s medical community is not substantially closer to an interconnected, interoperable EMR system now than it was in 2004, concluded a January California HealthCare Foundation report based on interviews conducted last summer with 22 health information technology experts from across the country. Read the rest of this entry »