"Health & Medical News"

Washington — Most physicians are prepared to meet the April 1 federal deadline for writing many Medicaid prescriptions on tamper-resistant pads, according to medical, pharmacist and other organizations. But these groups continue to reach out to doctors who may be unaware of, or confused about, the law.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: unranked [?]

It only takes a year to start draining empathy from future physicians, according to a study of medical students in the March issue of Academic Medicine. But empathy is a key quality medical schools should promote, experts said, because it makes for better physicians.

“We know as a medical community that really good communication skills with patients help the patients to comply with the instructions of the physician,” said lead study author Bruce W. Newton, PhD. “It puts them more at ease with the physician, a bond of trust is established, and if something unfortunately goes wrong, if you have this bond and communications skills, you are much less likely to be sued.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: unranked [?]

From:
Treatment Research Institute
600 Public Ledger Building, 150 S. Independence Mall West
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Tel: (215) 399-0980
http://www.tresearch.org

Paying substance abuse treatment providers for results, not services, may lead to improved quality of care, according to the first published study of a novel performance-based contracting system implemented by the State of Delaware in 2002.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Washington — Despite federal efforts to curtail it, fraud involving durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies is still a big problem for Medicare, says the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The agency recently announced it will expand a competitive bidding program for equipment suppliers. It also will require that suppliers be accredited before they can bill Medicare.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: unranked [?]

Washington — Two more national provider identifier deadlines are fast approaching for physicians.

As of March 1, doctors who bill Medicare electronically must include their NPIs on all Medicare claims in addition to any older IDs they may have been using. For most of the past year, the program has been allowing physicians to use their older, “legacy” identifiers alone while they obtained new NPIs and made sure the personal information attached to all of the numbers was matching correctly.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: unranked [?]

A commercial space flight industry is working to make the adventure and romance of space travel available to the general public — or at least to those with $200,000 or more to spare.

Space tourism, still in its embryonic stages, has some experts estimating that 10,000 to 15,000 people a year will fly in orbital and suborbital space in the next decade.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: unranked [?]

Doctors agree on the basic tenets of medical professionalism, but they frequently fail to live up to those ideals in practice, according to a survey of more than 1,600 physicians in the Dec. 4 Annals of Internal Medicine.

Nearly all of the physicians surveyed agreed doctors should use medical resources appropriately, tell patients the truth, minimize disparities, see patients regardless of their ability to pay, maintain board certifications, evaluate peers’ care, avoid sex with patients, work on quality initiatives, disclose conflicts of interest, report impaired or incompetent physicians, and report medical errors.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: unranked [?]

Physicians say a series of favorable court rulings is turning the tide in their crusade against frivolous medical liability lawsuits.

Three Ohio courts in six months sanctioned plaintiff lawyers for pursuing unsupported claims against three doctors. Judges awarded the physicians their legal expenses. In New Orleans, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a similar award to a Mississippi doctor Nov. 13.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: unranked [?]