Health insurers sue state over rate caps

The Patrick administration and the state’s leading health insurers are facing off in court over an attempt to cap small business premium growth. Read more

Obama nominates Mass. doctor to head CMS

President Barack Obama has nominated Massachusetts pediatrician Donald Berwick, known for his work to improve patient care, to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Read more

Litigation concern may prompt increase in cardiac testing

A troublingly high number of U.S. patients who are given angiograms to check for heart disease turn out not to have a significant heart problem, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Read more

Court: Thimerosal didn’t cause autism

The vaccine additive thimerosal is not to blame for autism, a special federal court has ruled in a legal battle by parents who claim that there is a connection.

The ruling was issued by the “vaccine court,” a special branch of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims established to handle claims of injury from vaccines. It may be appealed in federal court.

The parents presented expert witnesses who argued that mercury can have a variety of effects on the brain, but the ruling said none of them offered opinions on the cause of autism in the three specific cases at hand. They testified that mercury can affect a number of biological processes, including abnormal metabolism in children.

The ruling said that the parents were arguing that the effects from mercury in vaccines differ from mercury’s known effects on the brain.

The court concluded that the parents had failed to establish that their children’s condition was caused or aggravated by mercury from vaccines.

The decision that autism is not caused by thimerosal alone follows a parallel ruling in 2009 that autism is not caused by the combination of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine with thimerosal and other vaccines.

Health reform to trump whistleblower ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that potential whistleblowers are barred from filing lawsuits on behalf of the government if the suits are based on information obtained through a state, federal or local report - but the ruling’s impact will be short-lived. Read more

Study: CMS failed to act on findings of RAC demonstration project

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services could have collected an additional $231 million in improper Medicare payments during the three-year Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) demonstration had it taken steps to correct the “vulnerabilities” the program uncovered, according to a new analysis by the Government Accountability Office. Read more

Should we keep our rashes to ourselves?

Skin rashes are usually something we cover up with the most delicate of care.

So why do some people think sharing their skin ailments with other patients is the future of medical care delivery? Read more

Dealing with the changing dynamic of the medical staff

In recent times, the organized medical staff has evolved from an almost exclusive model of community-based independent physician practitioners to include a number of other physicians who have hospital connections through employment or contract arrangements. Read more

Better ways to control costs than ‘affordable health plan’

Shaken by ever-rising health care costs, businesses large and small are reacting. Read more

Will med-mal arbitration ever catch on?

Despite physicians’ and medical liability insurers’ vocal support of settling medical malpractices cases through arbitration, plaintiffs’ lawyers’ resistance is keeping it from catching on. Read more

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