FDA announces tobacco restrictions

The Food and Drug Administration has announced regulations that ban the sale and marketing of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products to individuals younger than 18. Read more

Drug makers to report payments to doctors

Disclosure of financial ties between doctors and drug companies will be universally mandated in the physician payment provisions passed as part of President Barack Obama’s health care reform measure. Read more

Law ends restrictions to mental health care

A federal law designed to guarantee parity in mental health insurance coverage has sparked a heated debate between business leaders and mental health advocates. Read more

Congress delays Medicare cuts

Congress has approved legislation that delays the looming 21 percent physician cut in Medicare reimbursements until May 31. Read more

Nurses lend support to medical pot bill

The largest union and professional association of registered nurses and health professionals in the state has thrown its support behind the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes. Read more

Bill would protect health care workers

Individuals who assault health care workers would face two and a half years in jail and a $5,000 fine under a bill backed unanimously by the state House of Representatives. Read more

RAND study: Physician tiering program flawed

A new study by the RAND Corporation analyzing the use of physician cost profiling tools similar to those used by the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission has concluded that the program misclassifies a significant number of the doctors profiled.

In reaching its conclusion, RAND obtained insurance claims submitted by 13,788 Massachusetts physicians to four health plans in 2004 and 2005. It analyzed the data to determine whether the profiles reliably reflected the physicians’ actual cost performance.

“The majority of physicians did not have cost profiles that met common thresholds of reliability,” according to the report.

Tiered health plan products have been adopted by several health plans across the country in an effort to encourage patients to use cost-efficient, high-quality doctors. The GIC, which purchases health insurance for state employees and other public sector employees, has required its participating health plans to implement such products since 2006.

The Massachusetts Medical Society is in litigation against the GIC and two of its participating health plans, seeking to “correct the wrongs” of its tiering program.

The RAND study, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Institutes of Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was published in the New England Journal of Medicine

Health care boasts fastest job growth

More than half of the 20 fastest-growing occupations are related to the medical industry, according to a study released by the Bureau of Labor.

CNA Arizona, a certified nursing assistant program accredited by the Arizona State Board of Nursing, cited statistics recently released by the bureau that indicate that the majority of jobs with the highest projected growth over the next 10 years will be in the health care industry.

The 2008 to 2018 projections included information on population, labor force, employment, employment change by industry, employment change by occupation, employment change by detailed occupation, employment change by education and training category.

Massachusetts joins lawsuit against J&J

Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office has joined a federal lawsuit that contends that Johnson & Johnson paid tens of millions of dollars in kickbacks to get its drugs, especially the powerful antipsychotic Risperdal, prescribed in nursing homes, according to The Boston Globe. Read more

Illinois: Med-mal damages cap violates state constitution

A cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases violates the Illinois state constitution, the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled.

The case involved an infant who suffered severe permanent injuries due to medical malpractice at her birth.

The plaintiffs challenged the state’s statutory cap on non-economic damages, arguing that the infant sustained disabilities that will “greatly exceed the applicable limitations on non-economic damages.”

A trial court held that the cap violated the Illinois Constitution, and the state supreme court agreed.

“[T]he General Assembly’s authority to ‘alter the common law’ … is not absolute; it must be exercised within constitutional grounds. … [T]he legislature’s attempt … to limit common law damages in medical malpractice actions runs afoul of the separation of powers clause.”

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