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Hundreds of physicians have said they would refuse to comply, even though it could mean the loss of overtime payment. Starting on Wednesday, the nation’s hospital doctors are required to punch time clocks, or register their start and end of work, via a special cellular phone program. This implements a section of the Israel Medical Association agreement with the government reached last August. Earlier this week, the Health Ministry issued instructions to all hospital directors that they introduce work-monitoring systems. The ministry said on Wednesday night that 60 percent of government hospital doctors, and a similar rate in Clalit Health...

Permanent repeal of the flawed Medicare payment formula known as the sustainable growth rate just got a lot more expensive. According to the Congressional Budget Office, which released its new Budget and Economic Outlook report on Tuesday morning, a 10-year repeal of the growth-rate formula that froze doctors' rates at current levels would cost $316 billion, compared with $290 billion when CBO last calculated the rate in November. The difference may make permanent repeal of the formula--always a long shot--even less palatable to lawmakers.

A 23-year-old died of cervical cancer because doctors said she was too young for a smear test, her devastated family have claimed. Mercedes Curnow, from Cornwall, first went to her GP at 20 years old but her mother says her symptoms were 'ignored' because of her age. After a year of doctors visits, Ms Curnow was taken to A&E by a family member and diagnosed with cervical cancer in April 2010. But by then it was too late and, after 33 radiotherapy sessions and nine months of chemotherapy, she died at home in her mother's arms on December 14 last

New York - Doctors in America are harboring an embarrassing secret: Many of them are going broke. This quiet reality, which is spreading nationwide, is claiming a wide range of casualties, including family physicians, cardiologists and oncologists. Industry watchers say the trend is worrisome. Half of all doctors in the nation operate a private practice. So if a cash crunch forces the death of an independent practice, it robs a community of a vital health care resource. (Snip) Doctors list shrinking insurance reimbursements, changing regulations, rising business and drug costs among the factors preventing them from keeping their practices afloat.

Hungary’s health care system may be facing serious staffing issues in a few days, with over 2,500 medical professionals set to quit their jobs on Jan. 1 amid salary demands. Health care workers are demanding higher pay, saying the current level is insufficient to make a living. They have deposited their resignations earlier in the year, which are to take effect at the end of this month unless the demands are met. According to the website of the doctors’ group organizing the effort, 2,577 people have submitted their documents by Dec 3. They account for about a quarter of doctors...

At least 10 doctors not previously disciplined by the state signed sick notes for Madison School District employees that the district considered fraudulent, according to a State Journal analysis of the notes submitted amid Capitol protests earlier this year. The newspaper also found that about 570 district employees submitted sick notes for at least one of the four days in February when teacher absences forced a school shutdown. The number presents, for the first time, a clearer picture of how many Madison employees sought an excused absence. The documents - obtained by the newspaper Friday as part of a settlement...

You could call it fallout from the Super Committee's big flop. Deficit-reducing budget cuts are slated to take effect in just over a year. Among those taking cuts -- hospitals and doctors that treat low-income patients. Dr. William Strudwick is the director of the emergency department at Providence Hospital in northeast Washington DC. It's a neighborhood hospital with a patient base of the elderly and working poor. "About 70 percent of the patients that come through our door rely on Medicare or Medicaid," Dr. Strudwick says. But Medicare payments to Providence Hospital and other medical providers are slated for a...

Doctors should read up on Shakespeare, according to an unusual medical study that says the Bard was exceptionally skilled at spotting psychosomatic symptoms. Kenneth Heaton, a doctor at the University of Bristol in western England, trawled through all 42 of Shakespeare's major works and 46 genre-matched works by contemporaries.

Seven doctors who wrote sick notes for protesters at the state Capitol in February received reprimands Wednesday by the state Medical Examining Board. Two other doctors got administrative warnings, which aren't considered disciplinary action as the reprimands are. The medical board voted 6-3 to approve the reprimands for the six doctors from UW-Madison. The board voted 6-4 to reprimand the other doctor, from Dean Clinic. A board member from the university's doctor group abstained from the first vote. Two of the board members who voted no said they weren't allowed to talk publicly about why. The reprimands go on the...

In fact, the AMA now only counts about 17% of doctors as members. According to a new survey, the majority of doctors do not believe that the AMA represents their views and interests. Much of that dissatisfaction stems from the organization's support for President Obama’s contentious health care reform package. That shouldn't be surprising. The AMA declares that its core mission is to "help doctors help patients." But ObamaCare undermines that pursuit by making life harder for physicians and driving down the quality of care available to patients. The survey - conducted by physician recruitment firm Jackson & Coker -...

(AP) MIAMI — A federal judge on Wednesday blocked enforcement of a first-in-the-nation law that restricted what Florida physicians can say about guns to their patients, ruling the law violates the U.S. Constitution's free speech guarantees and does not trample gun rights. U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke said it was important to emphasize "the free flow of truthful, non-misleading information within the doctor-patient relationship." "This case concerns one of our Constitution's most precious rights — the freedom of speech," Cooke said. "A practitioner who counsels a patient on firearm safety, even when entirely irrelevant to medical care or safety, does...

While the healthcare industry promotes enhanced transparency, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) is taking a step in the other direction, shutting down the once-public National Practitioner Data Bank, reports The Kansas City Star. As a result, the public can no longer access information on malpractice and disciplinary actions against thousands of doctors. "We have a responsibility to make sure under federal law that it remains confidential," said Martin Kramer, spokesman for the HHS's Health Resources and Services Administration, which oversees the Data Bank. The HHS defends the shutdown, noting that the names of doctors were getting leaked...

Doctors are paid higher fees in the United States than in several other countries, and this is a major factor in the nation’s higher overall cost of health care, says a new study by two Columbia University professors, one of whom is now a top health official in the Obama administration. “American primary care and orthopedic physicians are paid more for each service than are their counterparts in Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom,” said the study, by Sherry A. Glied, an assistant secretary of health and human services, and Miriam J. Laugesen, an assistant professor of health...

The dramatic rise in prescription narcotics use — and the subsequent increase in overdose deaths — has led to a spate of lawsuits across the country targeting doctors for malpractice or running pill mills. But legal experts say the case of one family physician in Henderson stands out. Dr. Kevin Buckwalter has turned the tables, filing a lawsuit against the parents of a young woman who died from an overdose of narcotics that he prescribed.

Most doctors will face a malpractice lawsuit at some point in their careers, a new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found. The threat of being sued creates a "tangible fear" that can lead physicians to practice costly "defensive medicine," the researchers concluded. Despite recurring calls for medical malpractice reform, the study found doctors in virtually all fields face a high risk of ending up in court. The study looked at malpractice data from 1991 to 2005 across nearly 41,000 physicians covered by an unnamed national insurer. The researchers at Harvard University and other institutions estimated that...

A controversy in the California workers’ compensation market over a revised provider contract threatens to erupt into an all-out legal brawl as doctors for injured workers and applicants’ attorneys take aim at the state’s largest carrier.

MIAMI (AP) — Doctors in Florida are fighting a first-of-its-kind law requiring them to have a legitimate safety concern before they start asking a patient about guns. The physicians contend the new law is too broad and they should be free to ask patients and parents about firearms in the house to make sure people know how to keep them safely locked away. Doctors routinely offer similar advice about other household risks, from the dangers of tobacco use to swimming pools. Gun rights supporters who pushed for the new law believe questions about gun ownership are an invasion of privacy,...

Splendid news: Our homeland security officials have sent fresh warnings to foreign governments that "human bombs" may try to board planes with surgically implanted explosives. The ticking terrorists are reportedly getting help from murder-minded Arab Muslim physicians trained in the West. Infidels beware: Dr. Jihad's version of the health care oath omits the "no" in "Do no harm." The death docs may be using their expertise to play "Hide the IED" in body cavities that bomb-detection equipment cannot penetrate. At least one Saudi operative has been nabbed with explosives in his bum, and British intel picked up on Arab website...

It is the close to midnight and your mother is drifting in and out of consciousness. She is 77, not young but not old enough for fatalism. In her darkened hospital room you feel fear and the dread of uncertainty. And then, the doctor goes home. In the New York Times, a recent article describes the migration of doctors from business ownership to shift workers. In increasing numbers physicians are no longer entering traditional "private practice" but exchanging autonomy (such that it is) for a role as employee of hospitals, large "corporate" physician groups, or universities. Most non-physicians seeing this...

The Latest From Obamacare: Send Government Spies To The Doctors OfficeJoe Weisenthal | Jun. 27, 2011, 8:08 PM | 441 | 18 In order to figure out why it's so hard to get a doctor's appointment, or even obtain a primary care doctor in the first place, the Health and Human Services Department proposed to send "mystery shoppers" into doctor's office. This notice -- via ABC's Jake Tapper -- was posted by the HHS back in April, and basically it's exactly what you'd expect from such a plan: send mystery shoppers into various offices posing as either insured or uninsured...

Secret shoppers aren’t anything new. Retail stores use them regularly to gather customer service data. But what happens when the government uses them to check up on doctors across the country? Is that going too far? That‘s exactly what’s about to happen to over 4,000 doctors in nine states. The New York Times reports that 4,185 doctors in Florida, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia — 465 in each state — will be getting stealth calls from people posing as potential patients. The point is to see if doctors are discriminating against those with...

A lawsuit has been filed by gun-ban advocates over Florida's new law that prevents physicians from grilling children in the name of "safety" about any firearms their parents may own, but Second Amendment experts say there's an underlying agenda that plainly aims to discourage gun ownership and compile a database on those who won't cooperate in getting rid of weapons. The Orlando Sentinel reported that Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed a law that says doctors and other medical personnel cannot ask patients about gun ownership or guns in their homes and record the responses unless it is connected to the...

{links in original piece at ShootingTheBull.net} Your doctor may be a liar, like Lisa Cosgrove, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. In their law suit in Florida she said with an apparently straight face to the press: "Your pediatrician has the responsibility to discuss with you and other patients the scientifically-proven risks to children posed by guns in the home. With 65 children and teens shot and eight of them killed every day in the United States, restricting the ability of pediatricians to fully discuss the significant risks posed by guns is dangerous, and a...

Huge Security Operation For Obama's UK VisitSky News – Mon, May 23, 2011 US President Barack Obama's first state visit to Britain has sparked one of the biggest security operation's London has ever seen. The measures are said to be costing £10m and will see much of the capital enveloped in a ring of steel. But as on any official trip, the US leader comes with his own vast security team and equipment to keep him safe. Extra caution is being taken following the killing of Osama bin Laden in a US raid in Pakistan earlier this month. Mr Obama...

As NPR reports, a Florida bill would bar doctors -- in particular pediatricians -- from asking their patients if they own guns. Gov. Rick Scott (R) is expected to sign the bill this week, which would make Florida the first state with such a law. Scott's office would not release a timeline on when the governor plans to sign the bill. But Scott's press secretary, Lane Wright, told TPM "it's likely he will support it." The National Rifle Association says doctors asking their patients about firearms in the home intrudes on Second Amendment rights. NRA lobbyists helped write the bill....

The Florida state legislature has passed a bill that would make it illegal for pediatricians and other physicians to ask patients or their parents whether they have guns in their home. Pediatricians often ask the question at initial well-child visits as a platform to discuss how to safely store guns in the home in order to prevent accidental shootings. But under the law -- expected to be signed soon by Florida's governor -- doctors would face a $500 fine for inquiring about gun ownership and recording it in a patient's medical record. That fine would increase if a physician asked...

In a long-sought move, the University of Miami won a legislative victory on Wednesday when Florida lawmakers agreed to extend state lawsuit protection to university doctors working in public hospitals. Gov. Rick Scott will likely sign the bill into law. Scott is also expected to sign another lawsuit-limitation bill that passed Wednesday that changes the way people can sue automobile makers. The vote to give “sovereign immunity” to UM has been years in the making. The state protects government hospital employees, residents and interns — including those at Miami’s Jackson Health System — from major medical malpractice judgments. But UM...

The White House release of a copy of Barack Obama's long-form Hawaian birth certificate continues to raise more questions – since the name of the president's attending physician differs from previous published reports. The name on the purported birth certificate lists Dr. David Sinclair as the obstetrician who delivered Obama in 1961. But reports by the Buffalo News and supposedly confirmed by the hoaxbusting website Snopes.com indicate the name of Obama's birth physician was Dr. Rodney T. West. Here is an image of what the White House claims is Obama's official, long-form birth certificate, with Sinclair's name listed as the...

The test that all medical school applicants take could place greater emphasis on behavioral and social sciences, adding a new component and lengthening the test to seven hours, if proposed changes are accepted. Members of the committee that proposed the changes to the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) say that this could help better identify applicants who have a greater understanding of behavioral and social factors that contribute to health problems. “We want to broaden the knowledge base that students have about those factors that influence health,” said committee chair Dr. Steven Gabbe, who is also CEO of the Ohio...

The first funeral Dr. Louis St. Petery attended as a young doctor was for a 2-year-old. His tiny patient's 5-year-old sibling had discovered a loaded handgun in dad's bedside table, aimed it at the toddler and pulled the trigger. "That made quite an impression," said St. Petery, a pediatric cardiologist. It's standard practice now for pediatricians to ask safety questions of parents: Is there a pool in the home? Do you have car seats and use seat belts? Do you have a gun in the house, and if so, is it locked up, with ammunition stored and locked separately? The...

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) has joined the fight against Barack Obama's signature healthcare law. On April 4, the AAPS filed an amicus brief in support of the Commonwealth of Virginia's case against the Affordable Care Act, asking the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to declare the individual health insurance mandate unConstitutional. In addition, the claim states that the mandate is not severable from the rest of the ACA. Officials from the AAPS argue that the individual mandate in Obamacare violates the Commerce Clause, Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, which limits...

The Israeli Medical Association has announced the beginning of a doctors' strike on Tuesday. The strike, a warning measure, will last for two days, and will include the roughly 20,000 doctors working in the public system. The IMA had attempted to negotiate with the Finance Ministry for better pay and conditions, but talks broke down over the weekend. Most clinics belonging to the Leumit and Clalit health systems will be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, select clinics will remain open in case of emergency. A list will be published later in the week. Dr. Leonid Eidelman of the IMA...

“Primum nil nocere.” First, do no harm. This bedrock principle in medicine is a foreign language to most politicians and, sadly, to some Wisconsin doctors, who have violated their oath and the public trust as they have defrauded Wisconsin taxpayers. Several University of Wisconsin family physicians donned their sacred white coats and were caught distributing fraudulent “sick notes” free for the asking quite literally by the boxful - I wonder who paid for that printing - to teachers and others who skipped work to engage in political protest at the state Capitol in Madison. Whatever the merits of the teachers’...

Doctors in Wisconsin engaging in deceptionUpdated: February 24, 2011, 6:43 AM Protesters in Wisconsin have apparently developed quite a bit of stress due to their recent protesting against the governor’s proposed legislation against collective bargaining. Many of these union workers, teachers as well as other nongovernmental employees, have seemingly also taken time off from work to engage in the protesting. And now, doctors have rallied to the cause. Doctors from several area hospitals have manned a booth with the explicit intent to provide a physician’s excuse that explains the employee’s work absence. A physician from the University of Wisconsin School...

Call it karma, just desserts, or schadenfreude. The cost to taxpayers of doctors’ notes excusing Wisconsin teachers from work so that they don’t get fired for illegally walking out on classes has been estimated at $6 million. Watching Big Government crack down on Big Labor? Priceless: Staff at the state Department of Regulation and Licensing have begun to review roughly 300 e-mail complaints about doctors issuing excuse notes for protesters at the state Capitol over the weekend, officials said Tuesday.Complaints that name a specific doctor and the alleged violations of rules covered by their licenses will be forwarded to the...

Today the state of Wisconsin Department of Regulation and Licensing, announced that it would begin "looking into accusations that a number of local doctors provided the notes for protesters who missed work during the week...the department will review complaints with the independent Medical Examining Board as soon as possible." This of course comes one day after a spokesman for University of Wisconsin Health said that it too was looking into the matter. While this peddles slowly along, some of profiles are being scrubbed clean. The profiles of Hannah Keevil and Valerie Gilchrist remain, while Kathy Oriel, James Shropshire, Lou Sannon,...

Wisconsin Doctors Probed for Fake Sick NotesJeanne Rose – 2 hrs 14 mins ago The debate over the Wisconsin budget has been going on for over a week now, and it does not seem to be letting up anytime soon. Just when you thought things were bad with the protests, which led to the closing of many schools, there is another twist to the case. Fox News reports that the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health has launched an investigation into whether some of their doctors issued fake sick notes to protesters. The demonstrations are against the...

Wisconsin's Real Doctors and Their Fake Sick Notes for ProtestersBy Ford Vox Feb 21 2011, 7:50 AM ET **SNIP** But last week some of these weary warriors carried their patient advocacy too far. In videos breathlessly presented throughout the conservative mediasphere this weekend [scroll down to see], doctor after doctor is videotaped writing patently fraudulent sick notes so that the protesting teachers (whose contracts specify that missing work without an excuse can result in dismissal) can keep marching on against the state's union-busting Republican government. After viewing the videos at my request last night, Dr. Arthur Derse called me up...

* Home * Stock Research o IBD Charts o Stock Checkup o Screen Center o Options Center o ETF Center o IBD Indexes o Daily Graphs Online * eIBD * News o Investing o Business o Economy o Technology o Capital Hill Blog o Click - IBD's Tech Blog o Management o Politics o Special Reports o Economic Calendar * IBD Editorials * Education o Daily Stock Analysis o Online Courses o Ask IBD o Financial Dictionary o IBD Workshops * Community o Forums o Meetups o Calendar * IBD TV * Store Just Think Of Those Bogus ‘Sick’ Notes...

Wisconsin Doctors Tell Teachers: Call in Sick to Continue ProtestsWisconsin Tea Party Activists Weigh In on State Worker Protests, Explore Measures to Recall Missing Democratic Senators By DEAN SCHABNER, KEVIN DOLAK, CHRIS BURY and OLIVIA KATRANDJIAN Feb. 19, 2011 Some Wisconsin doctors threw their support behind teachers protesting the Republican governor's efforts to strip unions of their bargaining powers, saying they would write sick notes for teachers to skip work to demonstrate. The union protesters have been picketing the state capitol in Madison for five days, angered by Gov. Scott Walker's proposed bill, which has the backing of the Republican...

When one digs long enough...

The biggest insurer in New York is debuting a pay for performance program to reward doctors who comply with certain best practices, but won’t penalize those who fall short. Empire BlueCross BlueShield plans to use claim data to better monitor whether physicians are complying with widely accepted medical best practices. Doctors who score well will receive better reimbursements. “The measurements are taking place,” said Dr. Scott Breidbart, chief medical officer for Empire, which serves about 5 million members. “We are rolling out this year in New York.” Other BlueCross BlueShield plans already have debuted similar programs, including Anthem, in Connecticut....

Evergreen State gun owners who have been alarmed about questionnaires in doctors’ offices that inquire about guns in the home might want to check what’s going on in Florida’s Legislature right now, and wonder how the same matter might be handled in Olympia. I have seen such questionnaires here in Washington State, and even written about one case down in the Vancouver area. The argument against such questionnaires is pretty straightforward: Unless a physician is also a certified firearms instructor, he/she has no business asking about guns in the home or offering advice on home firearms safety, gun storage or...

This week the Republican members of the House of Representatives plan to vote to repeal the new health care law known as “ObamaCare.” Democrats are quickly dismissing the effort. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pledged to block the bill and Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) tarred it as nothing more than “an obvious attempt to throw red meat to extreme Tea Partiers in the Republican base." Democrats may wish that only a fringe of hard line, anti-government types supported repealing ObamaCare, but the truth is very different. Support for ObamaCare's repeal is broad, and includes one group too often overlooked during...

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. doctors surveyed fear healthcare reform could worsen care for patients, by flooding their offices and hurting income, according to a Thomson Reuters survey released Tuesday. The survey of more than 2,900 doctors found many predict the legislation will force them to work harder for less money. "When asked about the quality of healthcare in the U.S. over the next five years, 65 percent of the doctors believed it would deteriorate with only 18 percent predicting it would improve," Thomson Reuters, parent company of Reuters, said in a statement.

Nearly 3000 Doctors Surveyed Believe the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Will Hurt Care Quality and Doctor Pay When asked about the quality of healthcare in the U.S. over the next five years, 65 percent of the doctors believed it would deteriorate with only 18 percent predicting it would improve. "It is clear that many physicians feel strongly that the proposed future state is counter to what they believe is the best way to serve patients," said Raymond Fabius, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Thomson Reuters

From Michael Peltier of the News Service of Florida: Doctors and other medical providers would be barred from asking patients – or the parents of child patients – if they have guns in their home under a measure that promises a major showdown between powerful lobbying groups. The National Rifle Association’s top Florida lobbyist and a Florida Medical Association member both say the issue is among the top priorities for the session, with the groups holding diametrically opposed positions on what doctors and their patients and families should be allowed to discuss during a medical visit.

[This is one reason why healthcare is so expensive. The cost of healthcare insurance is not the problem. It's the high cost of doctor's salaries and hospital services.] "The top employees at Mary Washington Healthcare earned more than $1.1 million in bonuses in 2009, their reward for a successful 2008." "More than two dozen key executives and employee physicians earned annual bonuses ranging from $2,000 to $246,278. The median bonus for the company was more than $28,000." "Fred Rankin, president and chief executive officer, received the largest bonus among managers: $151,430. Rankin continues to be the firm's highest-paid employee, with...

Physician Hospitals of America says that construction had to stop at 45 hospitals nationwide or they would not be able to bill Medicare for treatments." Stopping construction at doctor-owned hospitals might not seem like the best way to boost the economy or to promote greater access and choice in health care, but that exactly what Obamacare is doing. "Section 6001 of the health care law effectively bans new physician-owned hospitals (POHs) from starting up, and it keeps existing ones from expanding." American Hospital Association ... the AHA, along with Sen. [Max] Baucus (D-MT) and Congressman Pete Stark (D-CA), are responsible...

Obama Push to Rescind Conscience Rights Concerns Pro-Life Doctors Washington, DC -- A national organization of Christian doctors is strongly concerned about the Obama administration's effort to rescind conscience protections the Bush administration put in place for medical professionals. http://LifeNews.com/nat-6945