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 […]

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://www.emediawire.com/ Responding to market trends including an aging U.S. population and a predicted cardiologist shortage in coming years, physician recruiting firm LocumTenens.com today announced the launch of its cardiology division. (To search for cardiology jobs, visit LocumTenens.com.) “Healthcare industry data indicate that by 2015 there will be a marked shortage of certain medical specialists, cardiologists […]

By By DON JEPSEN for the Mail Tribune http://www.mailtribune.com State Sen. Alan Bates, D-Ashland, a physician, plans to offer an amendment to a bill subsidizing medical malpractice premiums that would continue to cover primary care and OB/GYN physicians in Ashland. This amendment and another that keeps Grants Pass doctors eligible for the subsidy program are […]

By MARY JO LAYTON STAFF WRITER http://www.northjersey.com If you want to see Ridgewood gynecologist Ruth J. Schulze, you’ll have to sign a contract promising never to sue her for malpractice. The veteran physician and a dozen other gynecologists in New Jersey require the contracts as a condition of treatment. Schulze sees it as the only […]

William I. Weston, J.D. Hollywood http://www.sun-sentinel.com In response to a letter about medical malpractice, the issue of malpractice claims is a bit more complex. First, many states tried mandatory arbitration and it worked well. I know because I was deeply involved as an arbitrator in one such program. However, it was the medical profession in […]

By JESSICA LONG San Diego Business Journal Staff Home Treating patients who speak little-to-no English costs individual physician practices on average $19,000 a year, according to a report released here last week. Philadelphia-based American College of Physicians, a national organization representing 120,000 internal medicine physicians, related subspecialists and medical students released that finding last week […]

As many as 15 per cent of all diagnoses are inaccurate, says Jerome Groopman. James MacGowan Ottawa Citizen In a new book, the doctor explains why and what you can do about it In Dr. Jerome Groopman’s fascinating but alarming new book How Doctors Think, the New Yorker writer and Harvard Medical School professor tells […]

By ROGER ALFORD Associated Press Writer http://www.kentucky.com/ Until this campaign season, Dr. Phillip Aaron had never given money in a governor’s race. But the Adair County family physician said he would really like to see Gov. Ernie Fletcher re-elected. So much so that he contributed $250 to help with campaign costs. Doctors have become a […]