By JENNIFER ROBISON http://www.lvrj.com Few topics on the 2008 campaign trail are hotter than health care. When it comes to covering the nation’s 47 million uninsured citizens, presidential candidates’ prescriptions have ranged from creating a single-payer federal system to reducing regulations on private insurance. But real solutions will fall in between those two poles, a […]

By Leland Kim http://www.khnl.com DOWNTOWN HONOLULU (KHNL) — The legal community responds to a new medical liability or tort reform bill, a day after the legislative health committee resuscitated it. Attorneys say the revived bill won’t help with the doctor shortage problem, and data from other states back them up. The medical community hopes a […]

By Derrick DePledge http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com The state House yesterday effectively killed a medical-malpractice liability reform bill, as lawmakers contended it was not the answer to the state’s shortage of medical specialists in rural areas and on the Neighbor Islands. State lawmakers will consider student loan repayment and stipends for doctors and dentists who work in poor […]

ANJEANETTE DAMON http://news.rgj.com The television ad clinched it. The image of trusted doctors in white coats trooping out of the state to flee high malpractice insurance rates bombarded voters, who overwhelmingly decided to cap the amount of money juries could award victims of botched medical procedures. The bitter fight in 2004, marked by twisted statistics […]

By George Wallace http://www.zwire.com Some 250 physicians from John T. Mather Memorial Hospital, St. Charles Hospital and other healthcare facilities in Suffolk County descended on state government offices last week to press their case for reforms that would rein in alarming increases in malpractice insurance costs, which they say are driving doctors out of business […]

http://www.financialweek.com When an IBM executive suddenly developed chest pain, he made an appointment with a cardiologist, who performed a battery of tests that had inconclusive results except an unidentifiable abnormality in the neck region. The cardiologist referred the executive to a neck surgeon, who removed the abnormality. The chest pain, however, persisted. Several months later, […]

Denver Business Journal – by Bob Mook http://www.bizjournals.com The co-sponsor of a proposal that would raise the caps on medical malpractice lawsuits said Wednesday he would ask the House Judiciary Committee to delay a vote on the bill to work out some issues that doctors raised about the legislation. Senate Bill 164, sponsored by Sen. […]

By Dr. MICHAEL LYNCH http://www.concordmonitor.com I am an emergency physician. I care for about 5,000 patients a year. I have been practicing for 12 years and thus have cared for roughly 60,000 patients. I receive deep satisfaction from my job and the privilege of the “laying on of hands” as the physician-patient relationship is called […]

http://www.bradenton.com Floridians have been served notice again that the state’s doctor shortage looms large over our health care system. Just a few days after the president of the Florida Medical Association sounded a dire warning about the “critical” physician deficit, Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg was forced to stop taking trauma patients due to […]