Medical practice news from FierceHealthcare

It's not often that prospective health plan members get pitched directly by a physician. But at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, that's exactly what's happening. The HMO has launched a program under which Read more...

A Georgia judge has struck down the state's cap on monetary awards in medical practices, a move that could remake the state's 2005 tort reform law. The judge held that the state's $350,000 cap on Read more...

San Francisco city officials have agreed to pay $5.1 million, one of the biggest payouts it has ever made, to settle a case of medial malpractice at its San Francisco General Hospital. The city Read more...

> A new report from the Congressional Budget Office suggests that electronic medical records may not be the financial cure-all some observers think. Read more...

This coming Monday and Tuesday (10/29 and 10/30), I'm heading to Philly to attend the Medical Group Management Association's annual conference. As usual, I'm expecting it to be an intriguing show. Read more...

Struggling to pay even their basic expenses, primary care doctors are increasingly asking patients for an annual fee in addition to co-payments on insured services. This isn't a high-touch concierge Read more...

Atrial fibrillation is fairly common in the United States, affecting at least 2.2 million people. This condition, which creates rapid and irregular heartbeats, often serves as a warning hearts are deteriorating and can be a major cause of stroke. Increasingly, physicians are hoping to treat it  with a costly procedure known as catheter-based ablation (CBA), rather than the fairly toxic drugs often used for this condition.

The problem is that the FDA hasn't approved any of the …

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Texas's new limits on medical malpractice awards has triggered a substantial migration of doctors into the state, overwhelming the state medical board and slowing down the process of screening newly-arriving physicians. These days, the Texas Medical Board is so bogged down that some doctors must wait months before they can actually begin seeing patients. In 2006, the board received 4,000 applications for medical licenses, a huge increase over the 2,992 it got last year. That has led to a …

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Making sure uninsured citizens get health coverage sounds good--but it won't work if physicians aren't on board. And it looks like that's a real hurdle for Commonwealth Care, the new insurance-for-all plan offered by the state of Massachusetts.

Primary care physicians aren't thrilled with the requirements for participating in Commonwealth Care products, which include making sure a patient has a first appointment within 45 days and is seen within 48 hours for urgent-care …

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Particularly when it comes to surgeons, who are particularly at risk for nicks and cuts, providers may pose more of a infection-control risk than previously thought. Because viruses like hepatitis B and C and HIV are spread by blood-to-blood contact, healthcare workers are more at risk than the general population, given their more-frequent contact with bodily fluids. And since there are no laws requiring surgeons to be tested for blood-borne viruses--not to mention that infected …

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