News in brief - April 26, 2004

Survey finds most Americans support caps - HMO settlement information online - Visa legislation in the works - New York academy adds office on health disparities

Survey finds most Americans support caps

A recent survey conducted for the Health Coalition on Liability and Access found 72% of respondents favor a federal law that limits noneconomic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits and 73% want to limit the amount trial lawyers can collect.

More than 80% surveyed said excessive litigation is pushing up insurance costs to a point that forces doctors to leave practice, and 72% said litigation costs are pushing up health care expenses for all Americans. A little more than half of those surveyed, 55%, said the high number of medical liability lawsuits is unjustified, while 16% said the number of lawsuits against health practitioners is lower than justified.

The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

HCLA is made up of more than 75 organizations that represent physicians, hospitals, insurers, pharmaceutical companies, employers, health care consumers and others.

HMO settlement information online

Physicians interested in learning more about how the landmark HMO settlements will impact their practices can go online. A new Web site offers a multimedia presentation on the settlements that includes speakers from the American Medical Association, state medical societies and lawyers who represented physicians in the lawsuits. Special applications may need to be downloaded from the site vodium.com/goto/healthcare/ama_settlement.asp.

Visa legislation in the works

New legislation regarding the H-1B visa has been introduced in the House of Representatives. The legislation, HR 4166, would create a permanent yearly exemption for 20,000 graduates of U.S. universities who have earned a master's level degree or higher.

The H-1B, which is frequently sought by international medical graduates who have been offered medical residencies in the United States, is limited to 65,000 professional or technical workers a year.

This year the cap reverted from a limit of 195,000 to 65,000, which was reached by midwinter. While physicians hired by nonprofit research, university or government institutions are exempt from this cap, not all resident programs fall into this category.

Since the visa cap was reached before the National Resident Matching Program was held, it has been noted that IMGs will have fewer visa options, which could impede their entry into the United States and their ability to fill their match obligations.

New York academy adds office on health disparities

The New York Academy of Medicine has added two new offices to focus on eliminating urban health disparities and on shaping health policy.

Charles K. Francis, MD, incoming president of the American College of Physicians, has been hired as director of the academy's new Office of Health Disparities. He will add new programs to the academy's efforts to reduce inequalities in medical care access, diagnosis, treatment and outcomes across racial, ethnic and socioeconomic segments of urban populations. Dr. Francis will study and develop interventions for disparities.

David M. Keepnews, RN, PhD, is the director of the new Office of Policy Development. He will translate academy research findings for policy-makers to more effectively develop and implement health initiatives and will identify academy research relevant to emerging governmental policy interests.

The academy is a nonprofit institution dedicated to enhancing public health through research, education and advocacy, with a particular focus on urban populations.