News in brief - Dec. 1, 2003

NIH increases number of student loan repayment awards - Fla. doctors still likely to see increase in liability premiums - Family medicine journal to expand - Interest in living wills booming

NIH increases number of student loan repayment awards

The National Institutes of Health repaid student loans for 1,200 health researchers during 2003 in an effort to promote careers in research. The loan repayment program saw its awards increase 66% from 2002, the first year the repayment program went into effect.

For 2003, some 1,197 new loan repayment contracts were written for a total of $63.3 million.

More than 50% of the awards went to physicians and more than 30% to PhD holders who graduated within the past five years. Eight percent went to MD, PhD degree-holders.

Fla. doctors still likely to see increase in liability premiums

Tort reform adopted in Florida earlier this year will help keep rates in check, but doctors shouldn't expect to see a price rollback, according to a new report from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. When making their requests, insurance companies will have to lower their rates by a 7.8% "presumed factor."

"Even after application of the presumed factor, we anticipate insurers will file for rate increases," Office of Insurance Regulation Director Kevin McCarty said in a statement. "This is primarily due to the rate need of the industry, which has continued to develop over the last year."

Florida, one of 19 states the AMA says is in the middle of a liability crisis, passed tort reform in August.

The legislation called for the insurance department to take the new laws into effect when rates were being set. The reform also established a $500,000 cap on noneconomic damages awarded in medical malpractice cases.

Family medicine journal to expand

Annals of Family Medicine, a journal which began publishing in May, will expand from 64 pages to 96 pages with its January/February issue.

Editor Kurt Stange, MD, PhD, lobbied the publication's board for the change to meet the needs of family medicine.

"We've had an extraordinary response to Annals in terms of numbers and quality of manuscripts. There were many more good papers than we had room for. This helps us to meet the need of both the authors and readers," Dr. Stange said in a statement.

The journal's sponsoring organizations are the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Board of Family Practice, Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, Assn. of Depts. of Family Medicine, Assn. of Family Practice Residency Directors and North American Primary Care Research Group.

Interest in living wills booming

Interest in advance care directives and living wills has exploded since the Florida Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush passed a law giving the governor the power to reconnect the feeding tube of Terry Schiavo, a 39-year-old woman who has been in a persistent vegetative state since having a heart attack 13 years ago.

This interest has been reflected in orders for "Five Wishes," a living-will document distributed by a Tallahassee-based organization known as Aging With Dignity. The organization reports that the document, which costs $5, meets the legal requirements for advanced directives in 35 states.

"In a typical week, we receive about 200 individual orders," said Aging With Dignity Communications Coordinator James Herzog. "Since mid-October, our orders have skyrocketed. We've had a tenfold increase with more than 5,000 individual orders, resulting in us distributing more than 20,000 Five Wishes living-will documents."

Information can be found at the organization's Web site (www.agingwithdignity.org).