"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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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An investigation into how a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary determined reimbursement for out-of-network physicians across multiple insurers alleges to show a pattern of underpricing services to shift the payment burden from insurers to patients.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Feb. 13 announced his intent to sue United, after a six-month investigation focusing on its Ingenix subsidiary. Ingenix operates a database used by most insurers to determine the so-called usual, customary and reasonable rates for physician services.

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An Ohio man whose house was robbed had more than $400,000 confiscated by the FBI as a result of an investigation of the crime, the Lima News reported Dec. 18.

Luther Ricks Sr. said the money, which had been stored in a safe and eluded the thieves’ grasp during a summer 2007 break-in, was his life savings. But officers from the Lima Police Department who were investigating the robbery seized the money and turned it over to the FBI. Now, the agency is telling Ricks he must prove he earned the money legally if he wants it back.

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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.

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