News in brief - July 18, 2005

Judge rules attorney fee to defray liability premiums is constitutional - CME courses arrive for handheld computers, cell phones - Compensation funds can be helpful - AMA asks doctors to assess specific disparity issues in their practices - Delegates reject plan to create database on practice environment

Judge rules attorney fee to defray liability premiums is constitutional

A New Jersey law imposing a $75 fee on attorneys to help subsidize medical liability insurance premiums does not violate lawyers' constitutional rights, a state judge ruled last month.

Superior Court Judge Thomas Lyons threw out a challenge by the New Jersey State Bar Assn., which had argued against the Medical Care Access and Responsibility and Patients First Act. Lyons ruled the fee was rational because attorneys have a close relationship with the medical field. The bar association is considering an appeal.

CME courses arrive for handheld computers, cell phones

The effort to bring continuing medical education into physicians' practices is taking hold. Epocrates has launched MobileCME, which allows doctors to get credits via their handheld computers or smartphones.

The free CME includes articles on cardiology, pediatrics, psychiatry, internal medicine and oncology, followed by a test of up to 10 questions.

When users synchronize their handheld devices to the Internet, the completed programs are sent to Epocrates, which will e-mail verification certificates.

Compensation funds can be helpful

Patient compensation funds can aid in providing predictability to volatile medical liability insurance markets and can help ease the liability crisis that some states are facing, according to a new report.

The Project on Medical Liability in Pennsylvania, which is supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, issued the report saying that if they are designed correctly, patient compensation funds can be a useful tool in balancing the needs of patients, physicians and insurers. Nine states either currently employ compensation funds or are still paying claims from a fund that had previously closed.

AMA asks doctors to assess specific disparity issues in their practices

The American Medical Association House of Delegates adopted new policy calling on physicians to reduce racial and ethnic health care disparities in their practices by examining issues such as language barriers, cultural and ethnic characteristics and biased behavior.

The policy adopted at the AMA Annual Meeting last month stated that physicians must strive to offer the same quality of care to all of their patients. Doctors also must learn to recognize racial and ethnic disparities and to look at their own practices.

Physicians should engage in participatory decision-making, and the medical profession should work to increase the diversity of the physician work force and promote awareness of health care disparities, according to the new policy.

"The medical community has made great strides in reducing disparities, and the AMA's new policy reflects an understanding that each and every physician can help by increased awareness and sensitivity to cultural differences in their practices," AMA Trustee Peter W. Carmel, MD, said in a statement.

Delegates reject plan to create database on practice environment

A proposal calling for the American Medical Association to create an annual report on the practice environment of each state was rejected amid claims that it would be too expensive and might duplicate information that is already available.

Delegates at the AMA's Annual Meeting in June voted down a resolution that called for an annual specialty-specific report with information about each state's liability climate, liability insurance costs, tort reform laws and payer reimbursements.

The goal of the proposal was to help residents and young physicians make more educated decisions as they enter practice. But critics balked at the roughly $1 million price tag of amassing and preparing the data.

Others pointed out that much of the information is already available through state and specialty societies and through some AMA departments. "Why reinvent the wheel?" asked Raj Lal, MD, a thoracic surgeon and alternate delegate from Illinois.