PMS' Darlene Kauffman

Bringing high-speed e-medicine to Pa. physicians

ConnectTheDocs initiative to expand electronic health information exchange in the Commonwealth.

Improving patient safety and its reporting system

Patient Safety Authority seeks ways to reduce reporting variability and launches expanded educational initiatives.

Michael Doering

Joseph R. Betancourt, M.D., M.P.H.

Cultural competency for patient-centered care

  Physicians can build their skills in the area of communicating effectively across cultures, asking particular questions of their patients, and being able to negotiate in ways that will improve the outcomes for diverse patient populations.

A return to home visits for the homebound elderly

A case for recruiting retired physicians to make house calls to homebound older adults.

Alfred E. Stillman, M.D.

Ann Torregrossa

Pa.'s chronic care management project

Implementation of a respected model of chronic disease care and management is being promoted by the state and supported financially by health plans.

Medicaid stops payment for preventable medical errors

Preventable, serious adverse events are not medically necessary and therefore, for inpatient services at acute general hospitals, these events will not be paid for under the Medicaid fee-for-service program.

Paula Bussard

 
Pamela Villarreal

Moving medical malpractice out of the courts

A liability by contract proposal to get medical malpractice out of the courts.

Ambulatory surgery centers proliferate in Pa.

Rapid and profitable proliferation of ambulatory surgery centers have important impacts on physicians and hospitals.

Rick Bloxdorf

 
Rosemarie B. Greco

Prescription for Pennsylvania progress report

Of the dozens of proposals to enhance access, quality and affordability, some have passed legislatively, some are being implemented administratively, and others continue to face hurdles.

Premier launches expanded hospital quality initiative

New hospital quality incentive project expands beyond Medicare and looks at appropriateness of care, clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, harm avoidance and efficiency.

Richard A. Bankowitz, M.D. M.B.A.

Don May

Appraising CMS's new hospital reimbursement methodology

Historically significant changes to Medicare’s hospital reimbursement methodology, and their anticipated impacts.

Impact of Pa.'s new infection reporting law

Reports will now go directly into a CDC database, while hospitals must demonstrate measurable improvement or face penalties.

 
HAP's Melissa Speck

Physician home visit Medicare patient demonstration

IBC pilot project uses physicians instead of nurses to expedite in-home preventive care to the frail eldery.

Pa. eHealth Initiative issues recommendations

What needs to be done to allow physicians to share electronic medical records across Pennsylvania.

The Joint Commission's health literacy initiative

Joint Commission recommendations on how to: make effective communication an organizational priority to protect the safety of patients, address patients’ communication needs across the continuum of care, and pursue policy changes that promote improved practitioner-patient communication.

Anticipating impacts of a Blue Cross merger

Seeking to have questions answered regarding a merger’s impact on physicians and patients.

Free electronic prescribing available to all physicians

Every physician with an Internet connection can now use electronic prescribing at no charge.

Improving end-of-life care in Pennsylvania

Report recommends a public awareness campaign, improved professional education and training, and reimbursement changes in order to improve end-of-life care.

Launching the 5 Million Lives Campaign

The campaign seeks to continue to save lives, raise awareness about the problem of variability in the quality of health care, and expand the national infrastructure for supporting hospitals in making improvements.

Parameters for Medicare pay-for-performance

Appraising which performance measures should be used and how they should be updated; which payment policy should be used to reward performance; and which key implementation issues need to be addressed, such as data and information technology requirements.

AHRQ offers prevention 
guidelines electronically

The federal government is making 110 recommendations covering 59 different preventive service topics even more useful and accessible.

Practicing patient-centered collaborative care

What physicians need to render “exactly the care that patients want exactly when and how they want and need it.”

Robert E. Wright, M.D.

Plans for a new medical school in Scranton 

Rationale and expectations for the state’s ninth medical school.

Turning physician stress into physician empowerment 

It is well recognized that medicine is a high stress profession. What is less well known is that chronic stress may be punctuated by episodes of terror, even acute stress reaction and post traumatic stress disorder when a mistake is discovered or a lawsuit ensues.

Hospitals collaborate to reduce diagnostic errors 

Efforts to define and identify pathology lab diagnostic testing errors, and to design and test interventions to reduce them.

Moving from evidence-based to value-based medicine 

Value assessment gives more complete information that includes quality-of-life metrics as judged by patients.

Internal medicine board adds practice improvement modules 

Practice Improvement Module program modifies and enhances the American Board of Internal Medicine’s maintenance of certification program.

Board certification offered in disaster medicine 

A description of the core competencies and testing process for this new board certification, which is available to all physician specialties.

IBC's pilot program promoting ePrescribing 

IBC hopes its pilot will demonstrate that ePrescribing is more efficient for the physician’s office, that it is easier for the patient, that it improves safety by reducing medication prescribing errors, and that it improves the cost-effectiveness of prescribing and hence the affordability of pharmacy coverage to members by reminding physicians of generic alternatives and preferred drugs on the formulary list.

Report card grades emergency medicine in Pa. 

Pa.’s grades in four areas reveal weakness in malpractice climate and strength in health care access. But strong grades mask other important weaknesses.

The role of religion and spirituality in medical care 

The author of Medicine, Mind and Meaning discusses why, when and how physicians should incorporate spirituality into patient encounters.

Appraisal of Attorney General's Health Care Unit 

Former head describes the Unit’s accomplishments and decries its limitations, which he says derive from a lack of political will.

Pa. launches academic drug detailing 

Pa. is sending trained staff, not unlike detailers for the pharmaceutical manufacturers, to call on physicians who have a high number of PACE enrollees and educate them with respect to prescribing in six different therapeutic classes.

IBC reinstates preauthorization for outpatient imaging 

Independence Blue Cross contends that it is a latecomer to re-instituting this medical management policy, and hopes to rein in over-utilization.

Navigating the PACE and Medicare Part D program 

How will you answer your elderly patients’ questions about Medicare Part D’s impact on PACE and PACENET?

Ob-gyn group organizes to adapt to practice environment

Large single-specialty group seeks stability in a harsh environment for this high-risk specialty.

Pa. Medicaid budget partially restored

Restored items benefit patients and providers, while some cuts stand firm.

IBM forming health information technology ventures

IBM health care technology experts discusses area’s promising expansion, obstacles impeding implementation, and innovation ventures with hospital systems.

Creating a practice in holistic medicine

Appraising different business models, treatment protocols, and benefits to patients and physicians.

Systems approach to health care quality improvement

Value Capture, co-founded by Paul O’Neill, seeks out health care organizations that are not content with a slow pace of quality improvement and error reduction.

Short history of Woman's Medical Hospital

Postscript of what happened, from a first-hand participant throughout the process.

Fighting frivolous malpractice lawsuits with countersuits

Even frivolous lawsuits cost insurers money to defend against and can raise liability insurance premiums. Countersuits attempt to recoup those losses, while sending a message to the tort community.

Effects of medical error disclosure & apology

Research suggests that physicians should apologize, and that doing so does not increase malpractice costs.

Government addresses health care competition

Why the feds suggest abolishing Certificate of Need requirements, oppose collective bargaining by physicians, are skeptical that health insurers have monopsony power, and more.

Fox Chase Cancer Center plans $1 billion expansion

How the expansion plans are expected to affect clinical and research activities, as well as Fox Chase’s network and other hospitals.

Pa. Supreme Court changes rules affecting malpractice

Real tort reform from the judiciary, explained by one who was there.

William H. Lamb, Esq.

Donna Baver Rovito

Championing physician causes with political activism

Activist for physician causes describes why she got involved and how her activities have grown.

Addressing childhood origins of adult diseases

An organization comprising over 100 organizations is addressing eight areas: screening and diagnostic follow-up, quality of life, tobacco prevention and cessation, research, treatment and care delivery, access to services, healthy lifestyles, and information management and dissemination.

Elizabeth Rappaport, M.D.

Ronald Herberman, M.D.

Wide scope of priorities for cancer control in Pa.

An organization comprising over 100 organizations is addressing eight areas: screening and diagnostic follow-up, quality of life, tobacco prevention and cessation, research, treatment and care delivery, access to services, healthy lifestyles, and information management and dissemination.

State-Sponsored Medical Malpractice Insurance

Pew Grant researcher appraises roles of MCARE Fund, JUA, Guaranty Fund and No-Fault payment systems.

Frank A. Sloan, Ph.D

John Blanchard, M.D.

Forming a national society for concierge physicians

President of new national organization explains conditions that make conversion to retainer-based medicine attractive or difficult, including legal and regulatory issues, and describes how the model fits in to the health care delivery spectrum.

Transforming family medicine on multiple fronts

Family Physician organization announces findings of reform project advocating far-reaching proposals.

James Martin, M.D.

James Tayoun, D.O.

Physician joins race for Pa. Senate

Vascular surgeon in South Philadelphia is a candidate in the April 27 Democratic Primary for Pennsylvania Senate, 1^st District.

Demand spike will cause severe MD shortage

Mostly driven by demand, there will be a substantial shortage of physicians by 2020 that cuts across most specialties and urges a look at the physician supply situation.

Stephen Foreman, Ph.D., J.D., M.P.A.

Rep. Phyllis Mundy

Challenging the surpluses of Pa.'s Blue Cross plans

Outspoken Pa. legislator details push to rein in Blues’ surpluses in light of recent Insurance Department restrictions.

Physicians gain from new Medicare law

AMA’s president-elect outlines reimbursement changes and other implications of the new Medicare law.

John C. Nelson, M.D., M.P.H.

Catherine T. Struve

Expertise-enhancing reform of malpractice litigation

Latest Pew grant study recommends minor changes to the present tort system to improve the performance of juries and judges.

New federal rule could degrade emergency care

Relaxed rules for on-call specialists could seriously increase burdens on emergency physicians and emergency patients.

John J. Skiendzielewski, M.D.

Walter Tsou, M.D., M.P.H.

Universal health care on ballot in Pa.

Former Philadelphia Health Commissioner describes universal health insurance ballot initiative and physician support for a single payor health care system.

The story behind tort reform success in Texas

TMA president narrates what it took to get malpractice caps signed into law. Some strategies and tactics may be exportable to Pennsylvania.

Charles W. Bailey Jr., M.D.

Rosemarie B. Greco

Leading Pa.'s new Office of Health Care Reform

With a charge to lead and coordinate the administration's health care reform agenda among and between several state departments, the new office is advising the governor on projects related to medical malpractice insurance, accessibility to emergency room care, the continued operation of trauma centers and long term care.

Advocating a new system of medical justice

Why the current tort system – and the typical remedies being debated – are inadequate compared to a new, alternative system to adjudicate medical malpractice cases.

Nancy Udell, Esq.

Randall R. Bovbjerg, J.D.

Tort replacement solution to malpractice crisis

Penetrating analysis of causes contributing to Pa.’s malpractice crisis, and of possible solutions, and why tort reform is a misguided approach compared to a systems approach that removes the fixation on individual blame.

Enforcing the patient privacy component of HIPAA

The director of the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, tells what he will be looking for as he gears up for the  enforcement of  HIPAA

Rick Campanelli

Karen Wolk Feinstein, Ph.D.

Report card for Pa. Health Department

Interviews with over 40 persons from inside the department and outside culminate in a reckoning of the department’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as an agenda for improvement.

Researching solutions to Pa.'s malpractice crisis

Principal investigator on the The Pew Charitable Trusts Project on Medical Liability in Pennsylvania offers an expert insider’s view of what dynamics drive medical malpractice crises and what approaches might stop them.

William M. Sage, M.D., J.D.

Roger F. Mecum

Inside the governor's malpractice task force

Inside look at who is on the task force, how it functions, what proposals it has considered and what impact the proposals have on physicians.

Finding primary care for ER patients

Four local hospitals partner with Montgomery County Health Department using a federal grant to connect uninsured patients with primary care physicians and reduce non-emergency visits to the ER.

Barbara O’Malley

Joanne Godley, M.D.

Priorities of Philadelphia Health Department

Philadelphia’s Public Health Medical Director describes city’s needs and initiatives to meet them

Nurse-managed Community Health Centers

Nurse-run health care delivery system parallels traditional physician-driven system, and some patients appear to prefer it over primary care physician visits.

Donna L. Torrisi, MSN

Joseph P. Rudolph, M.D.

Helping patients afford medications

Pittsburgh physician launches mail order program for prescription drugs that is available to anyone in the U.S. and offers considerable cost savings.

New health coverage for uninsured adults

New health plan for uninsured adult Pennsylvanians is funded from the state’s national tobacco settlement money. Here’s how it works.

Patricia Stromberg

 
Arthur H. Rubenstein, M.D.

Setting a new course for Penn Medicine

As Penn conducts a strategic planning initiative, the new dean comments on alternative future paths.

Health Dept's report on minority health care

A blueprint to help communities take stock of health care disparities and to engineer efforts to redress them.

Pa. Sec. of Health 
Robert S. Zimmerman, Jr., MPH

John R. Gregg, M.D.

Lawsuit against IBC alleges downcoding

Lawsuit seeking class-action status alleges pattern of payment denial, downcoding and bundling.

Returning to solo private practice

A first-hand account of how market forces bend and shape a physician’s career, and how a physician may prevail in the end.

Hester M. Sonder, M.D., MPH

Angelo S. Agro, M.D.

NJ passes physician joint negotiation law

New Jersey has become only the third state in the U.S. to pass a law granting antitrust exemption to private physicians who wish to negotiate jointly with health plans over fees and other contractual issues under state supervision. This version of the legislation may be the strongest yet for physicians wishing to garner bargaining clout through their numbers.

Chester County's clinic for the working poor

A health clinic like this allows physicians to return to the purity of practice: for the love of patients and free from marketplace and managed care pressures.

Mary Wirshup, M.D

Sec. of Aging Richard Browdie

Mending Pa.'s senior Rx coverage crisis

Secretary of the Pa. Dept. of Aging proposes short- and long-term fixes for the state’s cash-strapped program for low-income seniors.

New CEO charts Temple's future course

Chip Marshall III outlines plans to uphold Temple’s mission while facing a substantial operating deficit and several challenges to financial stability.

Joseph W. "Chip" Marshall, III

Joel M. Blau, CFP

Changing your practice situation

Many physicians are working longer hours for less pay and some may want to consider transitioning into another way of practicing medicine. Co-author of Medical Practice Divorce discusses legal, financial and personal considerations.

Second for-profit hospital chain enters area

Community Health Systems executive discusses business strategy for Pa. hospital acquisitions, including approaches to competition, cost-cutting and service enhancement

Gary Newsome

Gregg S. Meyers, M.D.

Evidenced-based patient safety recommendation

Director of the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the AHRQ discusses an analysis that the agency commissioned of evidence-based, best safety practices to disseminate to health care provider organizations, and advises that implementation criteria be sensitive to local priorities and resources.

Online reporting of MD disciplinary actions

A new state website currently reports a limited amount of physician disciplinary information, while the Pa. Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs considers adding to the scope of that information available to the public with the click of a button.

Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs Commissioner Albert H. Masland 

Barry A. Wolfman

Tenet puts area hospitals into the black

Head of operations for Tenet’s Philadelphia region describes financial evolution, service changes and cut-backs at area hospitals, and advantages of membership in national, for-profit health system.

Tuesday in Harrisburg journal

On April 24th, close to 200 southeastern Pa. physicians traveled to Harrisburg to lobby for relief from escalating malpractice insurance premiums. The following is a first-hand account of the trip, which is just one in a series of "Tuesdays in Harrisburg" for physicians from different regions of the state.

Pa. Health Secretary Robert S. Zimmerman 

Name-based HIV reporting proposed for Pa.

Pa. Health Secretary describes reasons to require confidential name reporting of HIV-positive patients, while retaining access to anonymous testing facilities.

IOM's call for systemic change in health care

Former AMA president outlines IOM’s latest report indicating that problems of health care quality persist in the U.S., that substantial improvement cannot come merely through harder work by health care providers, and that a systemic reorganization is needed in the way that various factors are integrated to improve health care.

Lonnie Bristow, M.D.

Robert A. Auclair, Esq.

Antitrust primer for physicians

Physician practices need to be concerned about how they're affected by antitrust and how their conduct can affect others. Any conduct that reduces or eliminates competition is generally prohibited under antitrust laws, and there are four problem areas for physicians: relationships with payors, IPAs, practice mergers and staff privileges.

MDs address malpractice reform at the grassroots

Private orthopedic surgeon discusses how he hopes to bring widespread attention to the region’s medical malpractice liability crisis, possibly resulting in widespread stoppage of surgeries, without running afoul of antitrust law

Frank Giammattei, M.D. 

Allen Myers, M.D.

College of Physicians balances change with tradition

College of Physicians of Philadelphia President discusses how the College’s roles have changed over its history, and the challenges the College faces to stay relevant with today’s physicians.

Penn Health System chart course for financial future

University of Pennsylvania Health System’s interim CEO and COO describes the impact of Penn’s cost-cutting strategies and the challenge posed by fiscal realities to the mission of an academic medical center.

Robert D. Martin, Ph.D.

Kenneth Melani, M.D.

Highmark's Internet portal for medical practices

Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield is offering an Internet interface with physician offices, which is being made available to other health plans, designed to allow electronic practice transactions such as referral authorizations, claims submissions and patient eligibility and benefit inquiries, with possible future applications such as pharmaceutical ordering, physician-patient communication and physician profiling.

Philadelphia's new health commissioner sets goals

New Philadelphia Health Commissioner outlines Department goals and his vision of the role public health should play in Philadelphia’s health care system.

Walter Tsou, M.D., M.P.H.

Melinda Jenkins, Ph.D., CRNP

Nurse prescribing regulations, Part I:
Regulations need to be less restrictive

The Alliance for Advanced Practice Nurses seeks more flexibility in collaborative agreements between CRNPs and physicians as well as in advanced pharmacology course work.

Nurse prescribing regulations, Part II:
Medical society ready to compromise

The Pennsylvania Medical Society is willing to increase the number of CRNPs each physician can have collaborative agreements with and allow alternatives to the 45-hour pharmacology course requirement.

Carol E. Rose, M.D.

Paul D. Siegel, M.D.

Redefining the Philadelphia County Medical Society

PCMS cultivates dialogue with neighboring county medical societies, establishes liaison with Independence Blue Cross for electronic claims system development, establishes video conferencing with state medical society and seeks to increase membership with concierge program for young physicians.

Using medical information on the Internet

Executive vice president and editor-in-chief of Medicalogic/Medscape and former editor-in-chief of JAMA advises how physicians can maximize the Internet’s utility for patient encounters and speaks to the credibility of Internet--and print--medical journals.

George D. Lundberg, M.D.

Anthony V. Coletta, M.D.

Physician organization partners with IBC

IBC hands over medical management for 10,000 patients to physician organization in a novel risk sharing model.

Market power of Pa.'s Blue Cross plans

Health care economist commissioned by the PMS to study Pa.’s insurance markets offers evidence that Independence Blue Cross and Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield are using their market power to stifle competition, restrict patient choice, raise premiums and reduce payments to providers.

Stephen Foreman, Ph.D., J.D., M.P.A.

John Hansen-Flaschen, M.D.

Responding to systematic reimbursement downcoding

Pennsylvania Blue Shield is automatically downcoding certain levels of critical care reimbursement, raising questions of how widespread the practice is, what impacts it may have on physicians and patients, and what recourse is available.

Improving pharmaceutical safety

President of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices describes a voluntary and confidential Medication Errors Reporting Program that has led hospitals to change protocols and drug companies to alter labels and take products off the market

Michael Cohen

Lewis S. Sharps, M.D.

Implementing a new physician reimbursement paradigm

President of the Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Society describes a risk sharing model, soon to be implemented in Pa., that establishes a single reimbursement price covering all costs associated with a given surgical procedure over a defined time interval from trigger event to conclusion event.

Working to improve Aetna's physician relations

Former AMA official John T. Kelly, M.D., Ph.D., plans to use the Internet to improve Aetna U.S. Healthcare's stormy relations with physicians.

John T. Kelly, M.D., Ph.D.

Daryl Stoner, M.D.

Retiring from medical practice at the age of 39

Philadelphia ob/gyn describes factors that led to her decision that practicing medicine in the region was no longer viable.

Advancing the battle for nursing autonomy

Sponsor of HB 50 explains how it would affect drug prescription authority of certified registered nurse practitioners and offers her views on how it is likely to impact on other nursing scope of practice issues.

Rep. Patricia H. Vance

Kent Bottles, M.D

Re-evaluating physician career paths

Expert in physician career assessment describes creative options for physicians who have become disenchanted with their present practice environments.

Delaware Valley IPA forms PHO with Tenet

President of an IPA for physicians at Tenet’s eight hospitals describes a PHO alliance with Tenet that he maintains will allow physicians to enhance their contract opportunities, benchmark their practice patterns and realize purchasing discounts while allowing them to retain autonomy in their practices.

Howard Miller, M.D.

Jeff Gross, MBA

Pharmacist care management program enters region

CVS joins Pfizer in a pilot program in Philadelphia offering patients with chronic diseases pharmacist-run care management based on health risk assessment algorithms

Insurance Dept. inches closer to Blues hearings

What progress has been made and why the outcome could have major significance for physicians in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D.

Coalition tackles tort reform

A coalition representing medical, business and public sector interests is pushing a broad set of tort reform measures in the Pa. General Assembly and the Pa. Supreme Court.

Germantown's plan to move acute care beds to Einstein

Germantown Hospital’s chief medical officer outlines the rationale and logistics of the plan, assessing its impact on physicians and patients.

Edward Jones, M.D.

Robert S. Muscalus, D.O.

Physician general nominee outlines priorities

Robert S. Muscalus, D.O., sketches his priorities, offers his view on the role and authority of the Pa. Physician General, as well as on health care regulation, non-physician scope of practice and other issues.

Tenet seeks new relationship with Philadelphia physicians

The key to Tenet's relationship with physicians is a local CEO at each hospital who is determined to meet the needs of the medical staff, say Tenet VP Lee Domanico.

Lee Domanico

Linda Peeno, M.D

HMO medical director becomes critic

Linda Peeno, M.D., uses her experience as an HMO medical director to expose what she regards as deep systemic defects in managed care operations.

Coalition seeks to hold HealthChoices accountable

A coalition of 14 medical and lay advocacy groups seeks reforms of Pennsylvania’s Medicaid managed care program before its startup in western Pennsylvania.

Owen Montgomery, M.D.

Harold C. Sox, M.D.

ACP-ASIM plan to expand access to care

President of the ACP-ASIM discusses the organization’s program to confront what it regards as the most critical health challenge facing the nation: expanding access to health care coverage.

Shifting insurance from employers to individuals

AMA trustee outlines the AMA’s health reform plan and its impact on physicians and health insurers, as well as on cost, quality and access to health care.

William H. Mahood, M.D.

PSIM President Robert B. Sklaroff

PSIM works for ACP merger, against Blues merger

Physician leader talks of the Pennsylvania College of Internal Medicine’s structure and agenda, as well as ongoing challenges to the merger that created Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield.

PCMS president focuses on patient access to physicians

Philadelphia County Medical Society’s new president addresses issues of access to physicians, as well as physician autonomy, job security and negotiating clout.

Robert D Reinecke, M.D.

Shimon Glick, M.D.

Comparing U.S. & Israeli health care systems

Israel’s health care delivery and payment system upholds fundamental ethical beliefs while it begins to face problems familiar to American physicians, payors and patients.

New evaluation and management guidelines

HCFA’s new E&M Guidelines have produced widespread physician anger. The process by which they were developed may not inspire physician confidence that they can be modified acceptably. New coding criteria must consider the value of care the physician brings to the patient

C. Richard Schott, M.D

Former physician general's prescription for PA

Pennsylvania’s first physician general, who recently resigned, offers her assessment of how the position needs to be modified and the way it must be supported by, while being independent of, politics if it is to promote public health issues successfully.

Crozer-Keystone to expand Medicaid HMO

Crozer-Keystone’s president and CEO explains his strategic plan for expanding Crozer’s Medicare HMO beyond Delaware County and offers his views on partnering with other health systems.

Crozer-Keystone CEO John C. McMeekin

Eileen Reynolds, M.D.

Managed care partners with medical education

Primary care resident education project provides housestaff report cards and administrative rotations at Independence Blue Cross.

Area physician enters Congressional race

Melissa M. Brown, M.N., M.D., discusses why physician interests need to be brought to the Congressional table and which issues she would pursue at that table.

Melissa M. Brown, M.N., M.D.

Robert L. Comis, M.D

Competing for clinical trials funding

Clinical trials funding is seriously threatened. The head of the new Coalition of National Cancer Cooperative Groups discusses proactive ways to redress those threats, including looking to industry and the private sector for competitive bids.

AMA launches program for collective bargaining

The AMA’s president-elect discusses their alternative to physician unions.

Nancy W. Dickey, M.D.

Gail Morrison, M.D.

Penn's new medical school curriculum

The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has fundamentally reshaped its approach to and structure of medical education. Gail Morrison, M.D., describes the new instructional modalities and content of this bold redesign and the rationale behind the changes.

Charting a new course for the Philadelphia County Medical Society

Julian Katz, M.D. discusses the medical society’s direction for the coming year, addressing young physicians’ concerns, society membership, regionalization, PADV and physician unions.

Julian Katz, M.D.

Richard Baron, M.D.

Public health intersects private medicine as Richard Baron, M.D., explains how rival HMOs and consumer coalitions can serve their own interests by cooperatively implementing a population-based reporting system for tracking a costly Medicaid segment.

Secretary Daniel Hoffmann describes the Department’s approach to regulating managed care and discusses his views on competition, the prospects of direct contracting, grievance resolution and legislative initiatives affecting managed care companies.

Managed care imperatives make medicine-public health synergies vital, says Roz D. Lasker, M.D., director of a national project devoted to that end. Public support services, risk management and patient population health, cost control and performance measurement are among the collaborative areas ripe for pursuit.

Thomas J. Keane, president and CEO of U.S. Physicians, discusses what he regards as a new architecture in the delivery of medicine: disease management specialty groups. Keane spells out his company’s growth strategy to become a dominant regional physician network, and his rationale behind opening the company to public investors.

Plans to start a regional physician union coupled with a new regional medical society indicate a revolutionary spirit alive in Philadelphia. Raymond J. Lodise, M.D., explains why the time is more ripe than ever for these visions to succeed, and describes the strategies each will pursue to repair the physician-patient relationship sullied by managed care.

Barbara Zurzolo, Esq., explains Millennium Physician Organization’s approach to creating a trans-county IPA in the Delaware Valley, which includes full risk arrangements with health systems.

Recently appointed PA Physician General Wanda D. Filer, M.D., discusses the purpose of the new post, its scope and authority, her policy priorities and role as physician representative.

Attorney General passes on Blues merger

The consolidation of Pennsylvania Blue Shield and Blue Cross of Western Pennsylvania has been approved. James A. Donahue III, Esq., assistant chief deputy attorney general of the antitrust section, explains how the Blues satisfied social mission and anticompetitive concerns which delayed the merger.

Considers whether a county is better able than a private company to manage a Medicaid population. Michael J. Vergare, M.D., governor-appointed member of the state's Advisory Committee for Mental Health and Mental Retardation, reflects on the behavioral health component of the HealthChoices HMO project.

Elliot J. Sussman, M.D., chairman and president of PennCARE, explains the vision behind the health network comprised of eight eastern PA hospitals and their medical staffs: Doylestown Hospital, Gnaden Huetten Memorial Hospital, Grand View Hospital, Hazleton General Hospital, Hazleton-St. Joseph Medical Center, Lehigh Valley Hospital, Muhlenberg Hospital Center and North Penn Hospital.

Robert W. Fleming, Jr., president and CEO of Primary Health Systems, Inc., tells how Lower Bucks Hospital and Roxborough Hospital fit into his for-profit regional hospital chain.