Medical practice

To date, virtually all of the major studies of healthcare quality have focused on care for adults, partly because children aren't prone to chronic diseases like diabetes whose outcomes can be measured easily. The gap in quality measures is particularly large when it comes to inpatient care, according to a study by the National Association of Children's Hospitals. However, a new bill being considered in the Senate would change the equation, budgeting $100 million over the next five years …

Not sure where you stand on pay-for-performance schemes? It seems that many of your peers have made up their mind. A new survey, conducted at the Fourth Annual World Health Care Congress in Washington, DC, found that about half of health purchasers and providers would like to see P4P use move ahead more quickly. Sixty-nine percent of the event's attendees said that the federal government should be moving more quickly into P4P-based reimbursement.

That doesn't mean the entire …

Despite increasing criticism of the practice, most doctors continue to accept gifts such as free meals from pharmaceutical and device-maker firms, convinced that such gifts aren't changing their prescribing patterns. A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that four out of five doctors let the drug and device firms buy them food and drinks. This trend continues despite widely-known guidelines issued in 2002 by the Pharmaceutical Research and …

Primary care costs much less than specialty care, but insurers aren't necessarily taking that into account, according to a new study. The study, by HHS's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, noted that while orthopedist fees averaged $210 per visit, and cardiologists $232 per visit, primary care physicians typically charge $100 per visit. But insurers still penalize primary care, requiring patients to pay an average of 20 percent of PCP costs out-of-pocket. Despite higher costs, …

After years of obscurity, palliative medicine is on the upswing, gaining new respect from hospitals and physicians. Growing numbers of medical centers offer palliative services, which focus on relieving symptoms and boosting quality of life for seriously ill patients. According to the Center to Advance Palliative Care, the number of medical centers offering palliative medicine has …

Sometimes, doctors have to share the worst possible news--that a patient or their family member is dying. They may also have to tell grieving families that a loved one has passed away. Unfortunately, many physicians don't know how to get this across without seemingly excessively detached or insensitive. But Emory University School of Medicine hopes to help doctors deal with end-of-life issues more effectively, with new coursework designed to teach doctors-in-training how to communicate …

A new research study had concluded that physicians tend to do better than patients when medical malpractice cases go court. The study, which was done by University of Missouri-Columbia law professor Philip Peters, examined 17 years of malpractice cases. He found that while juries may still side with plaintiffs when a doctor is clearly negligent, if evidence is unclear juries tend to give doctors the "benefit of the doubt." Part of the reason is that doctors tend to be able to mount …

Two of California's largest provider associations have joined a suit against Blue Cross of California, arguing that the health plan wrongly denied them payments for patients whose policies were later canceled. The California Medical Association and the California Hospital Association are jumping into a suit originally filed by Coast Plaza Doctors Hospital and Methodist Hospital of Southern California. Consumer organizations have blasted Blue Cross, which is accused of canceling individual policies after beneficiaries need expensive treatments. Blue Cross has argued that once policies are canceled due to incomplete or inaccurate applications, the patient must pay all bills. The hospital and physician associations say that this has left them with staggering bills. (California hospitals claimed $7.7 billion in bad debt last year, though the association can't say how much was due to Blue Cross retroactive policy rescissions.) The providers contend that Blue Cross must pay for any treatment it has authorized, even if the patient's insurance is later removed or the plan decides that the patient should not have been covered. They also argue that the cancellations were themselves improper.

A new California bill which would allow psychologists with special training to prescribe drugs has drawn angry protests from a state psychiatric group. The bill, which is being considered by the state Senate, would give psychologists the option of becoming "prescribing psychologists" after taking a year of courses and getting additional supervised clinical experience. (They would be required to have this training because unlike psychiatrists, they don't have MD degrees.) The California …

Working with physician groups, AstraZeneca has begun an initiative intended to bring more minority doctors on board for drug trials. Right now, African-American doctors account for about 3 percent of U.S. doctors, and Hispanic doctors a smaller percentage. About 13 percent of American doctors participate in drug trials, according to the drugmaker. AstraZeneca said that it intends to collaborate with an African-American physician group, the National Medical Association, and the …