Texas Medical Association Joins Lawsuit Against CIGNA, Aetna
from The Dallas Morning News, Feb. 10, 2009
The American Medical Association has joined doctors associations from Texas and other states in suing health insurers Aetna Inc. and Cigna Corp. over a database they say was rigged to underpay physicians for more than a decade. But Cigna on Tuesday said the rates doctors charge are part of the problem. The lawsuits heap more criticism on Ingenix Inc. data that already has cost UnitedHealth Group Inc. $350 million to settle a separate lawsuit involving the AMA. Ingenix is a UnitedHealth subsidiary. "It's time for Aetna and Cigna to stop this unethical business practice that shocks our patients with unexpectedly high bills for health care they thought they'd already paid for," said Dr. Josie Williams, president of the Texas Medical Association. More

Health Insurance, Bureaucracy Rob Patients of Doctors’ Time
from Healthcare Finance News, Feb. 6, 2009
Doctors today are finding it harder to spend quality time with their patients, according to a new survey by the Texas Medical Association. "Spending time with our patients is critical for good patient care," said Josie R. Williams, MD, TMA president. "The more time a doctor has with their patient the better the initial diagnosis and outcome - unfortunately, today doctors no longer have the luxury of time." Ninety-three percent of the doctors surveyed said insurance companies take too much of their time and attention away from patient care. Government payers, such as Medicaid, Medicare, and TRICARE, also rob patients of their doctor's time, according to 87 percent of physician respondents. More

Heath and Human Services are Battleground for State Privatization
from The Austin American-Statesman, Feb. 10, 2009
Nowhere in Texas government has the ideological divide over privatization - and the potential pitfalls - been more pronounced than in the arena of health and human services. Privatization critics say human services are the absolute last government functions that should be hired out. But in the past decade, the Legislature has hired or moved toward hiring private companies to run call centers enrolling Texans in food stamps and Medicaid, create a Web-based human resources system for the health and human services agencies and monitor the progress of children in foster care, with mixed results. More

Cash Strapped U.S. Patients May Be Skipping Drugs
from Reuters, Feb. 9, 2009
Americans with financial worries because of the ailing economy may be skipping needed prescription drugs in a wrong-headed attempt to save money, according to a survey released on Tuesday. Nearly 95 percent of doctors surveyed by Epocrates Inc. said they have some concern that patients may not be taking a prescribed drug correctly because of the economic climate. More

Debate Over Digitizing
from The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 7, 2009
President Obama has proposed spending about $20 billion in the economic-stimulus bill to computerize medical records within five years. Most experts agree this could add jobs, improve treatment and reduce costs. But at issue is privacy. Consumer groups worry that without adequate safeguards, information could be stolen or misused, while other groups fear that too many restrictions would hurt efficiency. Technology "is a significant part of the solution" to problems with medical records, says Joy Grossman at the Center for Studying Health System Change. "But there's a tension between protecting privacy and still allowing the transmission of data when it's appropriate." More

Stimulus Debate Shines Light on Health IT Job
from The Washington Post, Feb. 11, 2009
Former New York lieutenant governor Betsy McCaughey has caused a stir with a Bloomberg op-ed that raises questions about parts of the economic stimulus package concerning health care and the Department of Health and Human Services. McCaughey writes that "One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and 'guide' your doctor’s decisions." More

UnitedHealth and I.B.M. Test Health Care Plan
from The New York Times, Feb. 6, 2009
The giant insurer UnitedHealth Group is testing a new model of health care that many policy experts say holds great promise but has yet to prove itself. An earlier trial of the model by UnitedHealth, in Florida, never got off the ground because doctors refused to participate. This time, however, the insurer is teaming up with seven doctors’ groups to make another attempt, in Arizona, at the prodding of one of the state’s big employers, I.B.M. UnitedHealth will try giving doctors more authority and money than usual in return for closely monitoring their patients’ progress, even when patients go to specialists or require hospitalization. The insurer will also move away from paying doctors solely on the basis of how many services they provide, and will start rewarding them more for the overall quality of care patients receive. More

Health Care's Five Points of Fight
from Politico, Feb. 10, 2009
With Congress eyeing billions of dollars in health care spending to prop up the nation’s crumbling economy, the economic stimulus package is shaping up as something of a precursor for health care reform. So as lawmakers squabble over what will become the building blocks of comprehensive reform, Politico takes a look at the course ahead, with five guideposts to watch - crucial harbingers of where insiders see the health care reform debate headed. More

F.D.A. to Place New Limits on Narcotic Prescriptions
from The New York Times, Feb. 9, 2009
Many doctors may lose their ability to prescribe 24 popular narcotics as part of a new effort to reduce the deaths and injuries that result from these medicines’ inappropriate use, federal drug officials announced Monday. A new control program will result in further restrictions on the prescribing, dispensing and distribution of extended-release opioids like OxyContin, fentanyl patches, methadone tablets and some morphine tablets. These products are classified as Schedule II narcotics and already are restricted according to rules jointly administered by the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Agency. But the current restrictions have failed to “fully meet the goals we want to achieve,” said Dr. John K. Jenkins, director of the F.D.A.’s new drug center. More

Pfizer to Publicly Disclose Payments to U.S. Doctors
from Bloomberg, Feb. 9, 2009
Pfizer Inc., the world’s biggest drugmaker, will make public its payments to U.S. doctors for consulting, speeches and research amid criticism from Congress over the ties between the medical profession and drug companies. The payments to practicing physicians and other health-care providers, as well as to scientists, academic institutions and research centers, will appear on Pfizer’s Web site, the New York- based company said in a statement. More