News in brief - May 15, 2000

Maryland fines plans over pay delays - Blues plan, doctors form venture - Physicians march on California capitol - San Antonio IPA put on hold - PhyCor to sell more clinics - Massachusetts eyes receivership law - Medical bills drive bankruptcies - Seniors' 1999 drug bills rise quickly - Psychiatric drugs among costliest - Aetna cuts Medicare HMO coverage - Florida Republicans split on HMO bill - Employer-based coverage rises

The 1,100-member independent practice association BexarMed, formed by the Bexar County (Texas) Medical Society, will be put on ice because it failed to win a contract with the San Antonio Employers Health Alliance.

The IPA was formed specifically to serve the alliance; however, the group chose Baptist Health System Physician Hospital Organization instead.

PhyCor to sell more clinics

PhyCor, the Nashville, Tenn.-based physician practice management company, says it plans to sell more than $20 million worth of medical clinics and real estate in the next three months, after taking a $24 million restructuring charge for the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

The shrinking PPM now manages 35 physician practices as well as IPAs in 23 markets.

Massachusetts eyes receivership law

Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly proposed a law on April 21 that would allow the state to take over financially ailing hospitals, similar to the way regulators intervened in the case of financially troubled Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

Medical bills drive bankruptcies

Nearly half of more than 1 million individual bankruptcy filings in the United States last year cited medical bills or other financial consequences of illness or injury, according to a forthcoming study conducted by Elizabeth Warren, a law professor at Harvard University, Boston.

Warren found that the impact of medical costs is highest on women, families headed by women and the elderly.

Seniors' 1999 drug bills rise quickly

Wholesale prices for 50 prescriptions commonly used by the elderly rose 3.9% last year -- faster than the overall inflation rate of 2.7%, according to a Families USA report released April 25. The report also said prices for the same 50 drugs rose at twice the inflation rate in the past six years and that new drugs cost more than the drugs they replace.

Psychiatric drugs among costliest

Pharmacy benefits management companies reported that psychiatric drugs and antihypertensives constitute their highest single cost categories in a survey by Atlantic Information Services released on April 27. Psychotropics alone account for more than 10% of covered prescription drug costs, the company said.

Aetna cuts Medicare HMO coverage

Citing insufficient payments, Aetna Inc. says it plans to stop offering Medicare HMO coverage to seniors in several cities next year and will disclose those cities on July 1. The company cut Medicare HMO coverage for 62,000 beneficiaries in 1999 and has cut 17,000 so far this year.

Florida Republicans split on HMO bill

Republican leaders in the Florida Senate announced their support on April 25 of patients' right to sue their HMOs -- virtually ensuring Senate passage because Democrats already support the measure. But the bill has scant chance in the Florida House, where Republicans, who hold the majority, have broken with their Senate colleagues and still oppose the measure.

Employer-based coverage rises

The percentage of Americans younger than 65 with employer-sponsored health insurance coverage rose slightly from 63.5% in 1993 to 64.9% in 1998, following five years of erosion, the Employee Benefit Research Institute reports. It attributed the gain to a shrinking pool of self-employed workers and a growth in the number of people working for large employers.