lawmakers

A Florida law has made it a felony for physicians to refer patients to an imaging center at which the doctor serves as a medical director. While there are laws that prevent doctors from receiving kickbacks for imaging clinic referrals, a loophole allowed doctors to be salaried medical directors for imaging centers--making self-referrals legal if not completely kosher. Lawmakers hope the provision will cut down on fraud. There have been a number of insurance investigations related to the …

> GE Healthcare will pay $390 million to buy Sweden's Biacore, a maker of  machines for the life sciences industry, extending GE's move into that business after the purchase of Amersham International. Article (WSJ sub. req.)

> Sen. Hilary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) talked up EMRs at a conference on Long Island attended by hundreds of healthcare execs. …

The Los Angeles Times reports that a shortage of physicians is likely to seriously impact the U.S. healthcare system within the next decade. The paper argues that the potential shortfall is putting pressure on medical schools to increase enrollment and on lawmakers in Washington to allow more foreign physicians to immigrate into the country. The American Medical Association argue that medical school enrollment has remained "virtually flat" over the past 25 years. The newspaper …

With health plans like UnitedHealth and Blue Cross of California under public scrutiny for their business models, a move is underway to cap health plan profits. California insurance commissioner John Garamendi is behind one proposal, which seeks to cap health plan profits. Two separate bills proposed by Sacramento lawmakers seek to accomplish similar goals. One of the measures seeks to set a cap on patient copays. The legislative action is drawing quiet support from both hospitals and …

Inspired by the healthcare reform effort in Massachusetts, a number of states are attempting similar free-market approaches to providing healthcare coverage to their uninsured citizens. Lawmakers in New York, Wisconsin and Washington are all weighing similar experiments, The Wall Street Journal reports. Amy Lischko, the commissioner of the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, tells the paper she has been contacted by officials from at least 12 states. "All of …

President Bush spoke at the annual meeting of the American Hospital Association on Monday. The President said healthcare costs are spiraling out of control, noting that health insurance premiums have risen 75 percent in the last five years. Bush called for Congress to enact his package of healthcare reforms. The President asked lawmakers to extend his health savings accounts initiative to help reduce the burden of purchasing health insurance on consumers. He also stressed the need for …

Massachusetts lawmakers voted in for a major health reform bill, making the state the first in the nation to require citizens to purchase insurance. Gov. Mitt Romney (R), who has publicly campaigned for the measure, is expected to sign the bill into law. Supporters say the "hybrid" approach to guaranteeing healthcare, which mandates individuals to buy coverage and uses taxpayer funds for subsidies for the poor, could serve as a model for a national system. The law requires employers with …

In Sacramento, lawmakers are considering two bills today which could have a major impact on the health IT landscape in California and, by extension, the rest of the country. The first, SB-1672, offers tax breaks to hospitals if they establish EMR systems. The second, SB-1671, would issue smartcards to Medi-Cal participants, enabling the state's healthcare system to track patients who often slip through the cracks. An added benefit, says sponsor Abel Maldonado (R), is that the smartcards …

Cancer researchers and advocacy groups are fighting the Bush administration's plans to cut funding for the National Cancer Institute this year. Researchers have launched an Op-Ed campaign and cancer groups are planning an email and internet campaign to convince lawmakers to abandon the idea. The cuts themselves aren't particularly high--overall funding will drop from $4.75 billion to $4.5 billion, but critics say the move would be a symbolic defeat. Much of the money that could have gone …

A group of ten former Blue Cross of California patients has filed a lawsuit against the health plan, alleging that the company engaged in a systematic attempt to deny patients coverage after they contracted serious illnesses. The lawsuit charges that the insurer created a special in-house unit to do background checks on patients' cases in an attempt to find grounds to deny them coverage. In the past, insurers responding to similar complaints have argued fraud makes it necessary to closely …