By Alan Lyndon
A few weeks ago, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell released data from the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC) that showed a 41 percent decline in 2008 statewide medical malpractice lawsuits since 2002.
“Pennsylvania is a success story when it comes to medical malpractice reforms,” Governor Rendell said.” Our actions have worked. Thanks to thoughtful legislative reforms passed in 2002, along with aggressive judicial and administrative reforms implemented since then, the number of malpractice cases being filed and the cost of malpractice insurance continue to drop.”
In April of last year, …

Dear Editor,
In a letter you recently published about online medical ratings, your headline cried: “There Has Got to Be a Better Way” for patients to share information on health care providers.
With a plethora of anonymous ratings sites available – in which anyone, including physicians themselves or a person with an axe to grind – can post a review, it’s important for consumers to have a trusted resource in which the information is verifiable and where both sides of the story can be shared.
Angie’s List goes to great lengths to hold …

Information gaps are a significant impediment to the reports’ usefulness to policy-makers. Nonetheless, these reports can and should inform our discussion and debate as we search for a durable solution to the problem.

While Independence Blue Cross and Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield have recently ceded ground on coding and reimbursement methodologies, it remains to be seen whether insurers and physicians will be able to develop the necessary level of trust and collaboration to make innovative systems work.

Philadelphia City Councilman Michael A. Nutter has introduced a bill with moderate smoking restrictions. It’s time that Philadelphia join over 200 local governments in curbing our nation’s third leading cause of preventable death.

Despite all of the hype, the settlement appears to be short on public health policies and long on special legal protections for the tobacco industry. And there is no guarantee that any of the settlement money coming to Pennsylvania will be spent on tobacco control, public health or health care.

The sad spectacle of Allegheny’s nine Philadelphia-area hospitals losing tens of millions of dollars a month should give us pause.

E. Ruth Ever leaves southeastern PA a better place after five years of tobacco prevention activities.

Is it a coincidence that a second physician has left a high-ranking position at the state Health Department, or is it a sign of serious problems?

As Physician’s News Digest reaches a ten-year milepost, Delaware Valley physicians have reached a decisive crossroad. PND will fulfill this urgency by attempting to foster a viable program of change for area physicians.