By Nancy Feris http://www.govhealthit.com A new study finds that despite the widespread interest in regional health information exchanges in recent years, only 20 RHIOs in the United States are fully functional and a dozen are self-sustaining. Calling RHIOs’ survival in their current form “tenuous at best,” the study questions many of the prevailing assumptions about […]

Can Be Used For Anything From Deductibles To Surgery Reporting Kirstin Cole http://wcbstv.com We will be spending more than $26 billion on gift cards this year. And just when you thought there’s nothing new under the Christmas tree along comes one for “good health.” When it comes to Christmas presents, Stacey Smith was stumped over […]

Author: Martha Lagace http://hbswk.hbs.edu What used to be rare is now commonplace: traveling abroad to receive medical treatment, and to a developing country at that. So-called medical tourism is on the rise for everything from cardiac care to plastic surgery to hip and knee replacements. As a recent Harvard Business School case study describes, the […]

http://www.insurancejournal.com/ Lloyds’s insurer, Marketform Group Limited, which specilizes in non-US medical malpractice and other specialty lines, announced that American Financial Group Inc. (AFG) is to become the majority shareholder in its business, increasing the Company’s presence as an international specialist insurer. The acquisition, which remains subject to approval by Lloyd’s and the UK’s Financial Services […]

by Joan Trombetti, Writer http://www.dotmed.com According to the Medical Liability Monitor survey, the largest of its kind to track how much insurance carriers charge physicians, for the second year in a row, medical liability insurance rates are easing nationwide, with nearly 84% of company-reported rates holding steady or dipping in 2007. The report stated that […]

http://www.healthimaging.com One of the objections to the implementation of speech recognition software in a radiology practice is that it generates more errors than traditional transcription methods. According to a scientific presentation at the 93rd scientific assembly and annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), the opposite is true: transcribed reports show higher […]

By REED ABELSON http://www.nytimes.com Acknowledging that too many people simply cannot obtain health insurance on their own, the insurance industry plans on Wednesday to propose a series of steps the companies say would let more individuals, even those who have health problems, obtain coverage. The proposals, approved by a board of the industry’s main trade […]

The Oklahoman Editorial http://newsok.com ON the same day Oklahoma was again mentioned in a list of states with unfavorable legal climates, a conservative group urged adoption of a medical malpractice system that removes lawyers from the process. Removing lawyers from anything in which they’re entrenched is putting a match to a flammable pile of resistance. […]

By SHANNON DININNY ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER http://seattlepi.nwsource.com As rural areas cry out for more doctors, a hospital that serves workers and their families in Eastern Washington farm country could fall victim to a crackdown on boutique hospitals that cater to the urban rich. Doctors at the Wenatchee Valley Medical Center have spent 67 years mending […]