News: Medical Malpractice Insurance and Physician Practices

We here at Cunningham Group were extremely disappointed that trial lawyers got their way in Illinois and were able to strike down the 2005 Tort Reform legislation put into place to help with the absurd insurance rates physicians have to pay for their professional medical liability. A new study conducted by the consulting firm [...]

side note: We pride ourselves on being advocates for Physicians and were displeased to see the personal trial lawyers of Illinois get handed a victory by the state’s Supreme Court. This will probably lead to more frivolous lawsuits against good physicians. The tort reform bill signed into law in 2005 had kept [...]

By Mary Brophy Marcus
http://www.usatoday.com
Have you ever sat frazzled in a doctor’s office, waiting for your or your child’s appointment, only to glance up and see one of those Norman Rockwell paintings of a kindly old doctor gently pressing a stethoscope against the heart of a little girl’s doll?
In this age of managed health care, when [...]

http://www.dotmed.com
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – As part of its conversion to a digital medical imaging environment, Orthopedic Associates of Meadville, P.C., in Meadville, Penn., ordered the latest computed and digital radiography solutions from Carestream Health, Inc. The order, which included a KODAK DIRECTVIEW DR 3500 System, KODAK DIRECTVIEW Classic CR system and KODAK DIRECTVIEW Long-Length Imaging System, [...]

By ERIC HARTLEY
http://www.hometownannapolis.com
Dr. Laurie Poss has a message for the health insurance industry: “We don’t want to play anymore.”
For years, Dr. Poss has been feeling more like a factory worker than a family doctor. With insurance reimbursement averaging $23 a patient, her practice has become an assembly line.

By PHIL GALEWITZ
http://www.palmbeachpost.com
BOYNTON BEACH — Palm Beach County’s hospitals are balking at paying a collective $1.1 million a year to ensure that residents seeking help at an emergency room have 24-hour access to a neurosurgeon.
Hospital officials say they should not have to bear most of the burden of providing the emergency coverage. Instead, funding [...]

By Alex Costello
http://www.zwire.com
Faced with the unenviable task of closing the largest deficit in New York state history – $13.7 billion for 2009-10 – Gov. David Paterson has created a budget that makes cuts in nearly every category, while increasing some taxes.
One of the many items facing dramatic reductions is the state’s Medicaid program, and cuts [...]

Dayton Business Journal – by Mary Beth Lehman
http://dayton.bizjournals.com
Dayton-area experts are worried a shrinking number of primary care physicians in the area could leave residents without proper medical care.Dayton is being affected by a national shortage of primary care physicians in family and internal medicine leading to declining health outcomes and higher costs as fewer physicians [...]