News in brief - June 26, 2006

Antitrust lawsuit against the Match loses traction - D.C. doctors seek liability reforms - Arizona board to consider Internet prescribing policy - Va. takes script-tracking program statewide

Antitrust lawsuit against the Match loses traction

A federal appeals court in June dismissed a lawsuit that once threatened to shut down the National Resident Matching Program. It marked the third time a court has said the lawsuit, Paul Jung, MD, et al. v. Assn. of American Medical Colleges, et al., cannot go forward.

In the opinion, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the U.S. District Court's August 2004 ruling that concluded the Pension Funding Equity Act of 2004 exempted the Match from antitrust laws.

The suit, originally filed against the National Resident Matching Program, its sponsoring organizations and 29 teaching hospitals, claimed that residents' salaries were artificially low and work hours overly long because the structure of the program made it impossible for residents to negotiate these issues.

Sherman Marek, an attorney for the three former medical residents who filed the class-action suit, said they had not yet decided if they would appeal.

D.C. doctors seek liability reforms

The Medical Society of the District of Columbia in June urged local lawmakers to adopt a variety of reforms to fix "the broken liability system in D.C.," said MSDC Chair Peter E. Lavine, MD.

Among the package of 12 reforms are recommendations to limit attorney's fees, require a certificate of merit when plaintiffs file a lawsuit, prohibit physicians' apologies from being used against them as an admission of guilt and limit damage awards against defendants to an amount proportionate to their liability.

In addition to liability reforms, the MSDC also is recommending patient safety measures to help prevent medical errors and that the district study the effects of any enacted reforms two years after implementation.

The series of reforms are part of three separate bills that doctors hope will be passed this fall.

"There seems to be a consensus that a package of reforms to improve the insurance industry, civil justice and patient safety would be an excellent first step," to resolve access to care issues in the district, Dr. Lavine said.

The efforts are aimed at reducing high jury awards and legal costs that have contributed to higher medical liability insurance premiums for local doctors, driving them out of practice, he said.

Arizona board to consider Internet prescribing policy

The Arizona Medical Board on June 8 approved creating a subcommittee to draft an Internet prescribing policy that would clarify what is and is not allowed, and inform citizens about the hazards of obtaining prescription drugs over the Internet.

The board, which licenses and regulates more than 18,000 allopathic physicians, has disciplined physicians for prescribing drugs over the Internet without first establishing doctor-patient relationships. Also, board members agreed that there is misunderstanding and confusion about Internet prescribing among the general population.

In 2002, the Federation of State Medical Boards issued guidelines saying it is unacceptable to write Internet prescriptions based solely on an online questionnaire or consultation.

Va. takes script-tracking program statewide

This month, Virginia became the 23rd state to implement a prescription-monitoring program aimed at cutting down on abuse and diversion of pain medicines and giving physicians a tool to stop "doctor shopping," in which patients obtain prescriptions from a number of doctors.

A new state law creating the program requires Virginia's more than 2,000 pharmacies to send data on Schedule II, III and IV prescriptions to an online database accessible to physicians and law-enforcement officials. Patients must consent to allow physicians to obtain their prescription data.

Police must have an investigation already under way before requesting patient- or doctor-specific records. During the three-year pilot program, about 80% of requests came from physicians, according to database manager Ralph Orr.