North Carolina – Medical Board Voted to Post Medical Malpractice Records Online

The North Carolina Medical Board voted unanimously Wednesday in favor of adding medical providers’ medical malpractice judgments and settlements to its Web site. Since 2001, the medical board has posted basic professional and licensing information about physicians, physician’s assistants and other health care providers as well as any charges, allegations and disciplinary action the medical board has taken against them. Wednesday’s decision means malpractice judgments and settlements over a seven-year period that are greater than $25,000 will also be posted to profiles. Information on payments less than $25,000 will not be collected for public purposes. Twenty-five other state medical boards already make malpractice awards available to patients online. But North Carolina’s plan would not include payments before Oct. 1, 2007 – the date a law went into effect that requires the additional information to be posted online. “We felt the public did have a right to know more,” said Dr. Jan Rhyne, the medical board’s president. “We are seeing this as one way to regain the public trust, but also, we are trying to be transparent.”

Please click on the link below to read the WRAL.com article:

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3215463/

For more information on defending medical malpractice and nursing home matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at The Citron Law Firm, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Doctors Discover Ways to Keep Practices Healthy: High Costs Push Physicians to Join Forces, Diversify, Switch Careers

As a solo-practitioner working longer hours but making less money, Dr. H. Douglas Holliday didn’t think twice when presented with an offer to join a new internal medicine group practice where the physicians would be employees of Saint Thomas Hospital. Since joining West End Medical Group last year, Holliday has seen a decline in his overhead costs, including a nearly 80 percent dip in health insurance premiums for himself and his wife, who helps in the office. Joining to form larger groups or becoming employees of hospitals is one way that doctors are dealing with what many see as a financial squeeze from tighter reimbursement policies by insurers and government health programs. Other physicians are giving up private practice to join corporate America, or they’re adding new services to boost fee income. Primary care doctors like Holliday rely on office visits for much of their income, making them vulnerable to reduced payments from Medicare or private insurers. Currently, doctors who treat Medicare patients face prospects of a 10.6 percent overall pay cut effective July 1, but legislation pending in Congress could prevent that from taking effect. “About the only thing a physician can do when his income is being squeezed from increasing expenses — and decreasing reimbursements — is to see more patients to maintain his income,” said Dr. Michael Minch, past president of the Tennessee Medical Association. “And that gives you less time with each patient.”

Please click on the link below to read the Tennessean.com article:

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080619/BUSINESS01/806190338/1003/NEWS01

For more information on defending medical malpractice and nursing home matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at The Citron Law Firm, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.