News in brief - Jan. 26, 2004

Humana, physicians in Ohio settle - Johns Hopkins regains accreditation - AMA offers online CME series on treating pain - Audit praises Nevada board, makes recommendations

Humana, physicians in Ohio settle

Judges in Kentucky and Ohio late last year OK'd a deal that Greater Cincinnati area doctors reached with Humana Inc. to settle a lawsuit in which physicians sought relief from the way Humana reimbursed them.

A Hamilton County (Ohio) Court of Common Pleas judge and a Boone County (Ky.) Circuit Court judge gave the go-ahead to a settlement that promises specific reimbursement increases that should total $100 million over the next three years for physicians in metropolitan Cincinnati. Humana denies any wrongdoing.

The Academy of Medicine of Cincinnati, the Butler County (Ohio) Medical Society, the Northern Kentucky Medical Society and several doctors sued Humana and its Humana Health Plan of Ohio and Humana Insurance Co. subsidiaries in 2002.

Lawsuits filed against Aetna, Anthem and United HealthCare in state courts are still proceeding.

Johns Hopkins regains accreditation

The internal medicine residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital is back in the good graces of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. The ACGME reinstituted accreditation for the program after an October site visit found that the department had come into compliance with the 80-hour work-week regulations.

The ACGME found the internal medicine program to be violating duty hour standards last summer, following a complaint from a resident.

As part of bringing the program into compliance, Johns Hopkins has assigned more staff to monitor duty hours, reorganized the graduate medical education committee to provide closer oversight of residency programs, hired a full-time compliance officer and appointed a team to verify information provided by each residency program.

AMA offers online CME series on treating pain

The American Medical Association has released a 12-part online CME series on pain management aimed at primary care physicians. It includes such topics as the pathophysiology of pain, treating pediatric pain, end-of-life care options and the assessing and treating of pain in patients with substance abuse concerns.

The course was developed in accordance with the policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education and with an unrestricted education grant from Purdue Pharma, L.P.

Although it is reported that 45% of all Americans seek care for persistent pain at some point in their lives, the AMA Council on Scientific Affairs reported that many health care professionals have inadequate knowledge of basic pain-management principles and an "ungrounded concern" about regulatory oversight of pain treatment.

More information on the program is available online (www.ama-assn.org/go/pain).

Audit praises Nevada board, makes recommendations

An audit of the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners said the medical board meets or exceeds its state responsibility in regulating physicians.

The audit, mandated by the Nevada Legislature and conducted by the Federation of State Medical Boards, said the board could improve how it protects the public, adding that some changes would require legislation. The board should implement a system through its database for assigning high, medium or low priority to investigate cases that suggest risk to the public, then track those actions, according to the audit, released in December 2003.

To deal with an increase in malpractice claims, the audit said state legislators should re-establish a screening panel that reviewed patient complaints.