Massachusetts Medical Law Report Blog

It is not common for a physician to be criminally prosecuted when his or her patient dies or is injured during a medical procedure the doctor performs.
But last week a former gynecologist in Hyannis, Mass., whose patient died while he was performing an abortion last year, was indicted for involuntary manslaughter. The arraignment will [...]

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In a matter of hours today, President Bush vetoed the bill that was intended to stop the Medicare fee cut, and the House and Senate both overwhelmingly passed the bill again, overriding the veto.
Physicians here and everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief.
“Congress did the right thing again,” said Bruce Auerbach, M.D., president of the [...]

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After Bush vetoed the bill protecting physicians from the planned Medicare fee cut, the House and Senate are getting to work on garnering enough votes to override it.  Sounds like it won’t be too hard to do.
See more here.
The Senate was already expected to hold the override vote this evening.

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Alas, President Bush has vetoed the bill that would have protected physicians from the impending Medicare fee cut.
More details soon.

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The Medicare fee cut can’t win, even if it took Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, despite battling a brain tumor, to seal the deal.
“I return to the Senate today to keep a promise to our senior citizens and that’s to protect Medicare,” Kennedy said in a statement . “Win, lose or draw, I wanted to [...]

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Did you hear about the woman who died in a Brooklyn, N.Y. hospital waiting room? If you don’t believe it, click here to check out the youtube video.
Seeing is believing, but my jaw dropped when I heard that the psychiatric patient had been dead for more than an hour by the time hospital workers found [...]

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