March 08, 2010 Physicians and risk managers have fundamentally different approaches to disclosing medical errors to patients, according to a study published in the March issue of the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. In conducting anonymous surveys of nearly 3,000 risk managers and roughly 1,300 physicians, the study found that risk managers have more-favorable attitudes about revealing errors to patients, though they were less amenable toward providing an apology than doctors. “Risk managers also expressed more favorable attitudes about the mechanisms at their hospitals... ... FULL STORY
March 08, 2010 Physician use of electronic health records continued to grow in Texas last year, with younger doctors and primary-care physicians leading the charge with indirect access specialists—such as anesthesiologists and emergency medicine doctors—lagging behind, according to a survey by the Texas Medical Association. The survey also found that purchase, training and implementation costs are dropping and that almost 60% of the respondents reported interest in qualifying for the EHR subsidies included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the stimulus law. ... FULL STORY
March 08, 2010 One dollar in $4 spent on healthcare in America pays for unnecessary tests and treatments that physicians order to keep from being sued, according to a survey released by Jackson Healthcare and the for-profit consultancy Center for Health Transformation. ... FULL STORY
March 08, 2010 Thirteen physician-owned radiology practices are banding together to form a cross-country consortium known as Strategic Radiology, according to a news release. ... FULL STORY
February 22, 2010 The White House released nearly $1 billion in stimulus money to make health information technology available to thousands of primary-care physicians and hospitals and to train thousands of people in healthcare and IT careers. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said during a teleconference announcing the funds that $750 million would be earmarked to help hospitals and physicians adopt electronic health records. The money will include $386 million to help states adopt frameworks to allow health information to be securely exchanged between providers, plus $375 million to support the development of... ... FULL STORY
February 22, 2010 A jury in Andrews, Texas, acquitted a nurse accused of carrying out a personal vendetta when she anonymously reported concerns about a physician in a letter to the state medical board. Anne Mitchell had been on trial for less than a week on a charge of misusing government information. The letter to the medical board referenced specific patient files to support its descriptions of substandard care provided by a physician at the county-run, 15-bed Winkler County Memorial Hospital in Kermit, Texas. The prosecutor previously dropped the charge against a second nurse, Vickilyn Galle, who joined... ... FULL STORY
February 22, 2010 Christ Hospital in Cincinnati and its former parent, the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, have reached a tentative agreement with the U.S. Justice Department that would resolve allegations that the hospital assigned panel time on its cardiac diagnostic unit to the most lucrative physicians. The settlement terms have not been disclosed. An order to dismiss the case as long as the settlement is finalized was entered in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati. The government formally joined the case in 2008, intervening in a whistle-blower lawsuit brought by a cardiologist formerly on staff at... ... FULL STORY
February 22, 2010 Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp., Memphis, Tenn., and NEA Clinic, Jonesboro, Ark., announced that they have expanded their partnership to make the physician group part of the Baptist system, in part as preparation for healthcare reform. Baptist and the clinic have been 60-40 joint venture partners in 100-bed NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital, Jonesboro, since October 2007, when Baptist bought out the stake in the hospital owned by Community Health Systems, Franklin, Tenn. Community acquired its stake in its July 2007 acquisition of Triad Hospitals. The physician group will be renamed NEA... ... FULL STORY
February 08, 2010 The Federal Trade Commission reached a consent agreement with a Colorado independent practice association, whose negotiating tactics were said by the government to be illegal price-fixing. The FTC contends that Roaring Fork Valley Physicians IPA, which according to the government represents about 80% of the doctors in Garfield County, Colo., negotiated with health plans on behalf of its otherwise competing members in ways that violate federal antitrust law. The allegations include that the association demanded annual cost-of-living adjustments; refused to share contracts with members if the... ... FULL STORY
February 08, 2010 Carilion Clinic, Roanoke, Va., identified a buyer for one of two outpatient centers the system agreed to divest in order to resolve an antitrust challenge brought by the Federal Trade Commission. A group of physicians who practice with Valley Nephrology Associates in Roanoke formed Fairlawn Surgery Center in order to acquire the Center for Surgical Excellence, which Carilion bought in conjunction with the Center for Advanced Imaging in 2008. A year later the FTC took issue with the deal and ultimately entered a consent order calling for Carilion to sell both centers to parties approved by the... ... FULL STORY
February 08, 2010 Separately, the Federal Trade Commission announced it closed its investigation of an April acquisition by Scott & White Healthcare of a hospital in its home town of Temple, Texas. The accompanying statement for the first time acknowledges publicly that the commission’s staff was prepared to sue the system to undo the deal and requested that the acquired hospital be offered to another buyer in order to resolve the matter. Scott & White’s addition of 120-bed King’s Daughters Hospital eliminated the system’s only independent competitor in Bell County, Texas, according to... ... FULL STORY
February 08, 2010 The American Medical Association has again asked the Federal Trade Commission to abandon its position that what's known as the “red flags” rule, which targets identity theft in credit transactions, should apply to physicians and their practices because they bill patients. In a new letter to FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz, the AMA, the American Dental Association, the American Osteopathic Association and the American Veterinary Medical Association point to a recent court decision they say supports their complaint that the FTC has overstepped what Congress intended with the Fair and... ... FULL STORY
January 25, 2010 A U.S. District Court judge in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., denied the American College of Cardiology's request for a preliminary injunction to block a scheduled Medicare reimbursement cut for cardiology services. The ACC, its Florida chapter and other cardiology organizations filed a lawsuit against HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Dec. 28, 2009, seeking to stop the pay cut on the grounds that is based on the “erroneous and flawed” Physician Practice Information Survey. The ACC says Medicare payment cuts for 37,000 cardiologists are being based on the practice expenses of 55 doctors. ... FULL STORY
January 25, 2010 Holy Family Hospital, a 239-bed facility in Methuen, Mass., purchased the Andover (Mass.) Surgery Center, a free-standing 10,500-square-foot outpatient facility that had been jointly owned by Westborough, Mass.-based United Medical Systems and 23 physician partners. No financial terms were disclosed, but a news release said the deal was unanimously approved by UMS and the physicians. It also said that the staff members of the surgery center are now Holy Family employees and that the facility will retain its name but it will be identified as a Holy Family facility. “The driving force... ... FULL STORY
January 25, 2010 Community Health Systems, the 122-hospital chain based in Franklin, Tenn., announced the purchase of a multispecialty physician group that will partner with the system’s two hospitals in Spokane, Wash., and create a local integrated delivery network there. Shareholders of the Rockwood Clinic voted in favor of the sale to the publicly traded hospital chain, though the deal is pending “normal closing conditions,” a news release said. The deal, which closed earlier this month, will be followed by a reorganization of the physicians group into a local subsidiary of Community... ... FULL STORY
January 25, 2010 The Government Accountability Office says the Veterans Affairs Department needs to do more to ensure that its hospitals are adequately vetting and monitoring their physicians, based on a review prompted by patient deaths at the 55-bed Marion (Ill.) VA Medical Center. The GAO visited six VA medical centers and looked at credentialing and privileging files for a sample of physicians, and the report notes that the problems identified were not as severe as those uncovered at the Illinois hospital. Of 180 files reviewed, 29 lacked proper verification of state licensure, the GAO found. In 21... ... FULL STORY
January 11, 2010 HHS issued two sets of much-anticipated federal regulations that significantly further the government's healthcare information technology adoption agenda. The first set of regulations lists the “meaningful use” criteria that healthcare providers must meet to qualify for federal IT subsidies based on how they use their electronic health records. The second set of regulations lays out the standards and certification criteria that those EHRs must meet for their users to collect the money. Between $14.1 billion and $27.3 billion is at stake, which was made available under the Health... ... FULL STORY
January 11, 2010 Sisters of St. Francis Health Services, Mishawaka, Ind., is suing the physician leaders of its partner in a surgery center in Indianapolis over the orthopedic group's plans to open a new surgery center four miles away. The lawsuit alleges breach of contract, loyalty and fiduciary duties, as well as fraud and conspiracy, on the part of three physicians described in the complaint as managers of the joint venture and members of the partner, Indiana Orthopaedic Hospital. “We believe the lawsuit has no merit and we're going to defend it vigorously, and that's that,” says David Herzog,... ... FULL STORY
January 11, 2010 A federal appeals court affirmed a lower court’s decision to toss an antitrust lawsuit brought by a Little Rock, Ark., heart hospital and its physician investors against Little Rock-based Baptist Health and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Arkansas. The cardiologists alleged in the lawsuit that the six-hospital system and health plan conspired to restrain trade and monopolize the market for hospital-based cardiology services by booting the physicians of Little Rock Cardiology Clinic from 716-bed Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock, as well as dropping the physicians and their... ... FULL STORY
January 11, 2010 St. John Health System, Tulsa, Okla., agreed to pay the U.S. $13.2 million to resolve allegations that some of its financial relationships with physicians illegally induced referrals for medical services, the U.S. Justice Department announced. The system identified the potentially problematic arrangements and reported them to HHS’ inspector general’s office in 2008. The government determined that relationships with 23 physicians and groups violated the anti-kickback and self-referral laws. “St. John Health System is committed to honesty and transparency in all of its... ... FULL STORY
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