ABLEnews MedNotes

                        AMERICAN MEDICAL NEWS (10/19/92)

Medicare Changes Come Down to Wire (1)
  A bill containing 60 Medicare amendments narrowly passes in the House
  but falls to a Senate filibuster and is threatened by a White House
  veto.

Competition Causes Shift Anong Doctor Insurers (1)
  An increasingly competitive market is leading a traditionally genteel
  business to play economic hardball. Physician-owned liability insurers
  cover a third of U.S. doctors.

New Guidelines Prompt Debate Over TB Control (1)
  "I do not think as a clinician, I could ever see myself going to a
  patient's bedside in a Darth Vader mask. It would create such a
  surreal, dehumanizing, stigmatizing image that I couldn't live with
  it. This has no role in medicine." --Michel Iseman, M.D., chief of
  mycobacterial services, National Jewish Center for Immunology and
  Resoiratory Medicine on OSHA recommendations that health care workers
  wear industrial-type respirators to proect themselves from exposure
  to tuberculosis. Several unions have praised the recommendations.

What Congress Didn't Finish (2)
  Abortion, health fraud, fetal tissue research, tort reform and handgun
  control still before Congress.

Are You Part of the Changing Face of Medicine? (2)
  American Medical News surveys readers. For info, call 312-464-4440.

Residency Review May Shift Focus From Specialties (3)
  Academics are wary about specialties losing strong national standards
  and fear institutional accreditation will give too much power to
  hospitals.

Bill Aims to Curb Brain Injury (3)
  Every 15 seconds, someone in the United States sustains a traumatic brain
  injury. That's an estimated 2 million Americans a year.

Joint Commission Inches Toward Change (3)
  in hospital accreditation.

CBO: Health Care Inflation Threatens Personal Income (4)
  According to the Congressional Budget Office, by 2000, health care
  costs, unless controlled, will constitute 18% of the U.S. Gross
  National Product and cut the average American's income by 2.5%.

New Antiviral Agent, D4T, Now Available to Treat HIV (4)
  For info on free parallel-track program, call Bristol-Myers Squibb at
  800-842-8036 weekdays, 8:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time.

HMO Move to For-Profit Status Fails; Quality Concerns Raised (5)
  "The conversion lost because the opposition was able to raise
  significant doubts in the old-time members about coverage." --Robert
  Pfotenhauer, president, Group Health Association.

U.S. Says Canadian Exam Not Equal; Ruling May Limit Visas (6)
  Equivalency of the Licentiate of the Medical Council of Canada
  (LMCC) to the U.S. Federation of State Medical Boards' Federation
  Licensing Exam (FLEX) would have allowed Canadian doctors to take
  advantage of the H-1B visa for foreign doctors wishing to do patient
  care and clinical work in the United States.

Families Applaud Advances in Self-Determination (6)
  "The intent is, if you want to face it, to make the person die." --Joe
  Cruzan, who had his daughter Nancy starved and dehydrated to death.

Caring Cruise (7)
  The Sanctuary, a former Navy hospital ship, has 750 beds, five
  intensive care units, three operating rooms, a dental department and
  an obstetrics unit, but will take $15 to 18 million to refurbish.

NY Releases Position Paper on Economic Credentialing (8)
  "Patient care must not be compromised by the hospitals granting
  physician privileges based primarily or solely on how much money they
  make for the hospital." --John Herrman, M.D., chairman, Hospital
  Medical Staff Section, Medical Society of the State of New York.

'Think First' Pushes Education About Brain Injuries (9)
  "The only vaccination we have is education." --Clark Watts, M.D.,
  director, shock trauma unit, University of MAryland Medical Center.
  For futher info, contact Think First, 22 South Washington Street, Park
  Ridge, IL 60068; 708-692-9500.

What Benefit Plan Is Best for You? (11)
  Violating federal rules on pension and insurance benefits can cost you
  thousands.

IRS Moves to Cut Hassles in Payroll Tax Deposits (11)
  Under the current system, some employers, including physicians, have
  to make payroll tax deposits as often as eight times a month.

Wellness Programs Attract Patients, Promote Loyalty (12)
  AT&T claims every dollar spent on wellness reduces medical costs $2.

Doctors Rescue Hospital in Unusual Bankruptcy Decision (14)
  Chicago's Doctors Hospital of Hyde Park is now owned by an
  investment group that includes 57 physicians.

Level of Unsponsored Care Provided at Community Hospitals (stats) (15)
  Up to 2.3% unsponsored care (18.4%), 2.3%-5.6% (50%), 5.6%-10.3%
  (20%), more than 10.3% (5%), no unsponsored care (6.5%).

Insurance Claims for AIDS Up 12% (15)
  Life and health insurers paid $1.3 billion for AIDS-related claims
  in 1991.

Sign of the Times (15)
  While physicians'income increases are just about keeping pace with
  inflation, the heads of America's largest health care corporations,
  led by P. Roy Vagleos, M.D.,of Merck & Co., Inc., at $3.3 million,
  are doing considerably better. In fact, the CEOs of the 70 largest
  public pharmaceutical, hospital and medical equipment corporations
  in the US averaged $963,000 cash compensation in 1991, a 14% jump
  over the previous year.

Implants' Effect on Accurate Mamography Studied (18)
  "In most women with breast implants there is a decrease in
  measurable breast tissue [visualized] on the postaugmentation
  mammogram." --Neal Handel, M.D., The Breast Center.

Continue Drugs to Combat Depression (18)
  Recurrent episodes of depression can be prevented after three years
  by continuing use of antidepressant medication at the high dosage
  used to treat an acute episode, according to a study by David
  Kupfer, M.D., University of Pittsburgh.

Unsnarl the Medicare Regulatory Tangle (editorial) (19)
  "If the (Practicing Physicians Advisory) council's activities and
  influence can be expanded to address the spectrum of frustrations
  that beset physicians, it will prove to be a truly valuable
  addition."

Don't Settle Suits If You're Innocent (letter-to-editor) (20)
  "My response to the lament by Richard Waltman, M.D., about the
  pressure to settle a malpractice claim is "DO NOT SETTLE UNDER ANY
  CIRCUMSTANCES." --Julius Piver, M.D., J.D.

Let Doctors Revive 'Charity' Care (letter-to-editor) (20)
  "The word 'charity' has gone out of fashion. Forty years ago we all
  knew this principle; let's revive it....I feel the patient should
  pay a little each visit, even if it is only a dollar or two for a
  $30 service." --Albert Unger, M.D.

M.D.'s 'Exposure' Won't Serve Medicine (letter-to-editor) (20)
  "In a time when more physicians have lost sight of the propriety of
  maintaining sexual abstinence with patients, Dr. (Joanna) Demas'
  action (appearing in Playboy) was not well thought out." --Shellie
  Grant, M.D.

Case of Immaturity (letter-to-editor) (20)
  "Dr. Demas'conclusion that taking off her clothes proves she is
  sensual and sexual may be the reason for her statement, 'I don't
  feel I've ever been taken seriously because I am a young woman.'"
  --Sandra McCann, M.D.

What Doctors Can Do to Help Curb Domestic Violence (op ed) (21)
  "One day I walked into my office and found a cadre of police
  officers and investigators. Their attention was focused on the
  x-rays of an 18-month-old baby who had suffered 16 fractures over a
  four-week period." --Thomas Payne, M.D.

Red-Letter Day for Women's Health Research (23)
  Publisher Mary Ann Liebert is gambling that medicine will support
  the first multispecialty journal of diseases in women--the Journal
  of Women's Health.

At W Virginia Hospital, Staff Training Includes Taste of Old Age (25)
  At St. Francis Hospital, staff members to agree to an experiment,
  AgeSense, in which they will eat bland food, wear finger splints,
  and pinch pennies.

High Tech Is OK for Medicine, But Let's Keep Phones Simple (26)
  "There are so few places where one cannot be found, cannot be
  reached, is actually alone. Why at least not leave the car as a TFZ
  (telephone free zone)?" --A.M. Clarfield, M.D.

Rural Patients in Mississippi Get High-Tech House Calls (26)
  The horse of the 1800s has been replaced by an RV crammed with
  medical technology.

Reynolds Had Cigarette Lab, But then Shut It Down (27)
  for fear its results could be used against the company, according to
  biochemists who worked on the research project.

Can a Meeting of the Minds Produce All the Answers? (29)
  Experts on tuberculosis control to meet in Atlanta.

[The above listing, prepared for ABLEnews by CURE, includes all major
articles in the cited issue and a representative selection of the rest.]

...For further information, contact CURE, 812 Stephen Street, Berkeley
Springs, West Virginia 254511 (304-258-LIFE/5433).

