System being designed to help hospitals figure out whether you’ll pay them By JASON ROBERSON / The Dallas Morning News Mortgage lenders aren’t the only ones showing more interest in your credit score these days – the health industry is creating its own score to judge your ability to pay. The new medFICO score, being […]

By Jeffrey Young http://thehill.com The Bush administration has issued an eleventh-hour challenge to the physician lobby’s efforts to prevent a pending 10 percent cut in their Medicare fees, in the form of call for a mandate that doctors use new information technology standards. The administration wants to tie any legislation blocking the cut, scheduled to […]

Three Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) surveys show physician group practices battling rising costs in cardiology and orthopedics and constrained production in field of anesthesia. The MGMA Cost Survey for Cardiovascular/Thoracic Surgery and Cardiology Practices: 2007 Report Based on 2006 Data showed that median total medical revenue flattened in cardiology practices from 2005 to 2006. […]

At a time when the U.S. spends more than double what other countries spend for medical care, a new Commonwealth Fund, seven-nation survey finds that U.S. patients are more likely than any others to report experiencing medical errors, to go without care because of the cost and to say that the healthcare system needs to […]

http://www.insurancejournal.com The Louisiana Medical Mutual Insurance Company (LAMMICO) Board of Directors elected Thomas H. Grimstad, M.D., as its new president and chief executive officer. Dr. Grimstad will succeed John E. Lemoine, M.D., effective Jan.1, 2008. Since LAMMICO was founded in 1982, only three other physicians have led the Louisiana-based medical malpractice insurer, the company said. […]

By Christopher Lee Washington Post Staff Writer Lawmakers Seeking Curbs on Specialty Facilities Want to Attach Provision to Medicare Bill An end-of-the year push in Congress to stave off a 10 percent cut in the fees Medicare pays doctors has revived political interest in another thorny issue: whether physicians should be able to own the […]

Allows suit in crash caused by a patient By Liz Kowalczyk Globe Staff The state Supreme Judicial Court ruled yesterday that a doctor can be sued over a car accident caused by his patient, greatly expanding potential liability for the medical profession. A divided court said that the mother of a boy who was hit […]

By Shari Rudavsky, The Indianapolis Star http://www.usatoday.com When Loy Assell or members of her family want to see their doctor, they can get in within hours. If they need to cancel an appointment at the last minute, they can easily reschedule. The physician, Dr. Cynthia Kizer of Olio Road Family Care, and her colleagues keep […]

http://www.earthtimes.org On November 20, 2007, a New Jersey court ruled that the referral of a patient to an ambulatory surgical center (“ASC”) in which the referring physician owns an interest — an everyday occurrence throughout the State — violates the New Jersey anti-self- referral law, commonly known as the Codey Act. N.J.S.A. 45:9-22.5. This ruling […]