http://canadianpress.google.com TORONTO — Ontario residents hoping to avoid long waits at hospital emergency rooms could soon find themselves being treated by an unfamiliar type of health-care professional: the physician assistant. Health Minister George Smitherman said Thursday that physician assistants have played a long-standing role in the Canadian Armed Forces and in the United States, and […]

Judd Gregg http://www.eagletribune.com With the closing of the Weeks Medical Center maternity ward in Lancaster, N.H., in April, residents of the North Country will be left with only one hospital for prenatal and maternity care throughout the entire 1,830-square-miles of Coos County. Women living in Pittsburg, our northernmost town, will be forced to drive either […]

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 Satta Sarmah Landing page Dolores Karadimos, 62, has a laundry list of ailments posted on a sheet of copy paper taped to her wall. The list with more than 16 bullet points includes illnesses ranging from fiber myalgia and a herniated disc to asthma, osteoarthritis and ulcers. A myriad of physical ailments render Karadimos […]

http://www.businesswire.com DUBLIN, Ireland–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c85909) has announced the addition of 2008 Physician Quality Reporting Guide: Essentials of Data Collection, Work Flow Optimization and Physician Engagement for Practices to their offering. Many physician practices are gearing up for a full year of participation in The Center’s for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Physician Quality […]

http://www.insurancejournal.com The imbalance in the supply and demand for physicians — often tied to rising costs of medical malpractice liability insurance — will continue to intensify as the U.S. population continues to grow faster than the physician workforce. In addition, pressure will come with the increasing number of physicians practicing medicine on a part-time basis, […]