New insurer includes 100 local doctors By Michael Schroeder The Journal Gazette http://www.fortwayne.com After much collaboration, nine Fort Wayne-based medical practices, employing nearly 100 doctors, have formed their own medical malpractice insurance company. The result, Fort Wayne Medical Assurance Co., incorporated under the Federal Risk Retention Group Act, will cover those practices. It also will […]

By M.J. Ellington http://www.decaturdaily.com/ A local senator’s bill to provide medical liability insurance for volunteer doctors cleared a Senate committee Wednesday. Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, the bill’s sponsor, said the Finance and Taxation Governmental Affairs Committee passed the bill with bipartisan support. It now goes to the full Senate.

By: Marketwire . The Silicon Valley Pay-for-Performance Consortium, a collaborative effort started by Cisco® (NASDAQ: CSCO), Intel Corporation and Oracle along with several large California physician organizations (POs) to accelerate the use of technology for quality health care, today announced its first year end results. These results demonstrate impressive strides in the adoption and use […]

By BARNABY J. FEDER NY TIMES Responding to criticism from surgeons, the government has dropped its previously announced plans to expand Medicare coverage for the use of stents to prop open neck arteries to prevent strokes. Instead, Medicare will stick with definitions that restrict eligibility for such stents to fewer than 10 percent of the […]

Associated Press http://www.chicagotribune.com WASHINGTON — Sens. Norm Coleman and Carl Levin are introducing legislation this week aimed at withholding payments for doctors and other health care providers who owe federal taxes but still receive government checks for treating Medicare patients. The bill comes following a congressional investigation which estimated in March that 21,000 physicians and […]

By Molly Albertson Cape Gazette staff http://www.capegazette.com State officials say midwives could be a part of the solution to Delaware’s high infant-mortality rate, and new legislation regulating midwives will be considered in the House on Tuesday, May 8. In its 2006 report, the Delaware Healthy Mother and Infant Consortium called for better prenatal care, a […]

http://home.businesswire.com The Doctors Company, the nation’s leading physician-owned medical malpractice insurance carrier, is pleased to announce an average premium reduction of nearly 8 percent in Ohio beginning May 1, 2007 for new policyholders and July 1, 2007 for those renewing their coverage. “This rate reduction is further evidence of The Doctors Company’s commitment to Ohio […]

By Sean Murphy http://www.insurancejournal.com Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry has vetoed a sweeping civil justice measure that would have changed the way negligence and medical malpractice lawsuits are filed and litigated in state courts. Despite his veto of the so-called “tort reform” bill, Henry said he planned to work with lawmakers on a compromise measure to […]

BY MIKE FITZGERALD News-Democrat http://www.belleville.com Metro-east physicians and hospital executives are nervously watching the progress of a legislative proposal to allow juries to award damages to plaintiffs for “grief, sorrow and mental anguish” in wrongful death cases. A bill setting up this new category of damage awards, in addition to the category already in place […]