Most key health-reform measures gaining momentum in Washington not only leave private health plans intact but also may give them a greater role. In addition, the health insurance industry got to ride the coattails of the attention brought by President Barack Obama's speech to the American Medical Association as he sought the physicians' support of his health-care reform initiatives. Throughout the AMA's five-day policy meeting, doctors maintained their support of the private health insurance system.
At least 81 U.S. healthcare workers have contracted laboratory-confirmed cases of the novel H1N1 influenza virus and about half caught the bug on the job, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced. The finding suggests that hospitals and workers are not taking sufficient preventive measures to limit the spread of the virus. If a large-scale outbreak of the virus recurs this fall, the infected nurses, doctors, and others could transmit the virus to debilitated patients before their own symptoms become apparent.
Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is about to begin a project called "open notes" in which about 100 doctors at the hospital and two other sites will allow 25,000 to 35,000 patients to read their physicians' notes for a year as part of their online medical record. Researchers hope to learn whether the notes prove more useful than objectionable. They hypothesize that access to doctors' notes will improve care partly because patients will become more knowledgeable about their treatment and about their doctors' instructions.
Richard M. Scrushy, former chairman and chief executive of HealthSouth Corp., was found liable in a civil suit alleging he masterminded the massive fraud that nearly sank the rehabilitation company. A Birmingham judge awarded the plaintiffs $2.876 billion in damages and rescinded Scrushy's employment contract.
Physicians getting jobs out of residency reported an increase in median salaries from last year in emergency medicine, infectious disease, and hematology/oncology, according to the Medical Group Management Association "Physician Placement Starting Salary Survey: 2009 Report Based on 2008 Data." The survey also found that experienced physicians migrated to Florida and Texas, while those directly out of residency favored North Carolina and Illinois.
The AMA voted in its annual meeting to establish a dress code that would do away with the white coats that have distinguished physicians for years. The goal of the ban is to reduce the risk of infection from bacteria on unwashed sleeves.