By VANESSA FUHRMANS http://online.wsj.com Health plans are drawing scrutiny for offering financial incentives to entice doctors to prescribe cheaper generic medicines, including paying doctors $100 each time they switch a patient from a brand-name drug. Pharmaceutical companies have long gone to great lengths to try to get doctors to prescribe their brand-name pills. They spend […]

By Serena Gordon HealthDay Reporter http://www.washingtonpost.com A co-pay as small as $10 can stand in the way of a woman getting a potentially lifesaving mammography, new research suggests. When women in Medicare managed-care plans were asked to contribute a small co-pay, in some cases around $10 to $20, 8 percent of the women decided to […]

http://www.democratandchronicle.com The worsening problem of physician shortages in the Rochester region and upstate finally is prompting solutions. Gov. Spitzer has a good plan to help new doctors pay their schooling debts if they open their practices in underserved areas. And locally, the region’s largest provider and largest insurer, with the vital intervention of the Rochester […]

by Satta Sarmah Landing page Dr. Kari Cataldo practices primary care in Sullivan, population 4,326. She said she grew up in a small town and likes that environment despite some of the professional concerns. “One of the challenges is that I don’t have other colleagues in the office with me,â€? Cataldo said. “It’s also challenging […]

All 119 PQRI Measures Have Been Built Directly Into athenaNet and National Client Base Workflow to Help Maximize Participation and Reimbursement Under Expanded Program athenahealth, Inc. (Nasdaq:ATHN), a leading provider of internet-based business services to physician practices, today announced that athenaNet(r), athenahealth’s centrally-hosted, on-demand practice management and EMR services network, now incorporates all 119 new […]

http://www.democratandchronicle.com Sandra Parker, Scott Ellsworth and Dr. Brad Berk Guest essayists Retaining and recruiting the physicians we need to provide the quality of health care we expect has been a pressing issue here for several years. But through open and honest discussions, based on facts and data rather than anecdotes, the stakeholders in local health […]

Blue Cross measure aims to slow runaway costs, improve quality of healthcare By Alice Dembner Globe Staff Massachusetts’ dominant health insurer is proposing to overhaul the way it pays doctors and hospitals, in what company officials said is an attempt to slow runaway healthcare costs and improve the quality of care. Blue Cross and Blue […]

http://www.chron.com By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS Associated Press Writer © 2008 The Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio — A new report says the number of medical malpractice claims in Ohio dropped 20 percent from 2005 to 2006. The report released Tuesday by the Ohio Department of Insurance says there were 4,006 medical malpractice claims reported for 2006, compared […]

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Last year, Gov. Ed Rendell devised a way to provide coverage for Pennsylvanians who lack health insurance, and now he’s found a better way to pay for it. Right now, 767,000 state residents do not have access to health insurance. The vast majority of them are working, many of them piecing together two […]