Among the must-do issues on Congress’ end of year list is the “doc fix” – billions of dollars needed to avert drastic rate cuts for physicians who treat Medicare’s 48 million beneficiaries.

For doctors, the nail-biter has become a familiar but frustrating rite. Lawmakers invariably defer the cuts prescribed by a 1997 reimbursement formula, which everyone agrees is broken beyond repair. But the deferrals are temporary, and the doc fix has become increasingly difficult to push through a divided and deficit-wary Congress. Last year, Congress delayed scheduled cuts five times, with the longest patch lasting one year.

The script is no different heading into 2012. Should lawmakers fail to reach agreement before returning home for the holidays, a half million doctors will face a 27 percent cut beginning Jan. 1. Although Democratic and Republican leaders have pledged to stop that from happening, they disagree over how to offset the costs of a fix. While there is little doubt some agreement will be reached, a deal could be delayed until early 2012.

Read more on the “doc fix” dilemma on Kaiser Health News here.

The new Temple/St. Luke’s medical school has its leaders hoping for 150 new doctors in the Lehigh Valley in the coming decade.

Trustees, donors and staff members from St. Luke’s Health Network and Temple University hosted a holiday reception Friday at Saucon Valley Country Club for the school’s 31 inaugural students.

The students began medical school in August at Temple’s main campus, and will study full-time next year at a St. Luke’s Hospital-Anderson campus in Bethlehem Township, Pa.

“We want to keep 50 percent of these students here,” said Dr. Joel C. Rosenfeld, the chief academic officer for St. Luke’s and a senior associate dean for the Temple University School of Medicine. ”That will put 150 new physicians into hospitals in our area over the next 10 years.”

Check out the rest of the article for more information.

“…Many young doctors are taking salaried jobs, working fewer hours, often going part time and even choosing specialties based on family reasons. The beepers and cellphones that once leashed doctors to their patients and practices on nights, weekends and holidays are being abandoned. Metaphorically, medicine has gone from being an individual to a team sport.

For doctors, the changes mean more control of their personal lives but less of their professional ones; for patients, care that is less personal but, as studies have shown, more proficient.”

Read the New York Times to find out more

There’s a hearing scheduled in Harrisburg this week to begin the process of creating state-approved ID’s for medical personnel.

When the question is asked, ‘Is there a doctor in the house?,’ it is usually expected that a D.O. or M.D. will answer and not a PhD.

Scott Chadwick, vice president of government affairs at the Pennsylvania Medical Society, said a law passed last year recognizes that a lot of people in medicine have doctorates but not all are physicians. “You might see a non-physician health care provider with a white lab coat that says Dr. Jones or Dr. Smith and to the public they’ll think that’s a physician,” Chadwick said, “but it might be someone with a doctorate in nursing or some other non-physician speciality.”

For full article: Pa. To Issue ID’s for Medical Personnel

To read the complete article, click here.

Doctors readily dispense prescriptions and advice, but what do they do themselves? A number of surveys, polls and questionnaires provide some clues—and some surprises.

Physicians as a group are leaner, fitter and live longer than average Americans. Male physicians keep their cholesterol and blood pressure lower. Women doctors are more likely to use hormone-replacement therapy than their patients. Doctors are also less likely to have their own primary care physician—and more apt to abuse prescription drugs.

“As a profession, we have not always taken good care of ourselves,” says Edward Creagan, a professor of medical oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., who writes the Mayo stress blog. But doctors who aren’t fit learn their lesson the hard way, he says. There’s a growing awareness that “if one is not psychologically, spiritually and physically fit, one will not go the distance in this profession.”

What’s more, many studies show that doctors who exercise and watch their weight are more likely to counsel patients to do so and be more credible, too.

“There’s a strong link between what doctors do themselves and what they tell their patients to do,” says Erica Frank, a professor of public health at the University of British Columbia who was the principle investigator on the Women Physician’s Health Study (WPHS) which surveyed the health practices of 4,500 women doctors in the 1990s, and has studied U.S. medical students and Canadian doctors as well. “If we pay more attention to physicians’ health, we’ll have a patient population that is healthier.”

Read more.

With more than half its physicians predicted to retire in the next decade, the Scranton region marshaled hefty local and state support to open a medical school in its own backyard.

The Commonwealth Medical College caters to Pennsylvania residents, reserving at least 70 percent of its spots for them in the hope they will stay local.

In doing so, the region confronted one of health care’s most pressing problems: a projected national shortage of 159,300 physicians by 2025, with the greatest impact in rural and other underserved areas, including parts of Philadelphia and South Jersey.

Scranton’s college is one of nearly two dozen medical schools that have opened in recent years or are in planning stages around the country. The growth is the industry’s largest since the mid-1970s.

Several other schools are in the approval process, including a partnership between Cooper Hospital and Rowan University for one in Camden.

Other schools are expanding. Temple University plans to launch a campus in the Lehigh Valley, and Drexel University is considering expansion to other cities in addition to adding slots in its Philadelphia school.

Factors in the growth are an aging and growing population, the expected retirement of about a third of doctors nationally, and changes in health-care policy that will insure more people.

Read more.

A Montgomery County senator unveiled legislation Wednesday aimed at preventing costlier malpractice insurance coverage for doctors.

The legislation, which drew support from the Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Society and Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, represents a new chapter in efforts to rein in malpractice costs in the state and recruit younger doctors for high-risk practices in underserved regions like Northeast Pennsylvania.

One bill by Sen. John Rafferty, R-44, Collegeville, would keep the basic medical liability coverage level that doctors must obtain from the private market at $500,000. This would be accomplished by removing the state Insurance Commissioner’s authority to conduct market studies that could conceivably increase that coverage level to $750,000 or even $1 million, proponents said.

Under a 2002 state law, physicians receive another $500,000 in insurance coverage from the state-administered Mcare fund, which depends on revenues from annual assessments paid by physicians. For example, assessments on orthopedic surgeons range from $9,000 to $15,000 depending where they live. Assessments in the northeast region are generally higher.

A companion bill by Mr. Rafferty would create a new commission to oversee distribution of money from the Mcare fund.

Read more.

As law makers debate health care overhaul, they are also considering ways to increase the number of primary care doctors across the country. If the plan passes, it will cover 30 million additional Americans and some fear there aren’t enough doctors to meet the anticipated need. Host Liane Hansen talks to Dr. Atul Grover, the chief advocacy officer for the Association of American Medical Colleges.

LIANE HANSEN, host:

As health care overhaul legislation advances through the Senate, lawmakers are debating a number of proposals and amendments, including an effort to increase the number of primary care physicians across the country. If the health care bill is approved, more than 30 million Americans would be covered, and some fear there aren’t enough family doctors to meet the anticipated need.

Dr. Atul Grover is the chief advocacy officer for the Association of American Medical Colleges. And he’s in the studio. Welcome to the program.

Dr. ATUL GROVER (Chief Advocacy Officer, Association of American Medical Colleges): Thank you for having me.

HANSEN: Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York reportedly plans to introduce an amendment to the health care bill that would add funding for 2,000 medical residency spots in order to get more primary care physicians into the pipeline. Will that be effective?

Dr. GROVER: I think it’s a good start. The problem is that we’re facing, even without significant expansion in insurance coverage, a shortage of somewhere between 125 and 150,000 physicians by the year 2025. And why that’s important now is because you can’t just pull doctors off the shelf. We’re talking about on average 10 years to train and educate them. So it’s something we need to think about now.

HANSEN: Well, why are some senators opposed to the idea of more of these slots?

Dr. GROVER: Well, I think a lot of it comes down to money. And we know that they’ve had a tough time keeping the total budget for the health care reform package under the limits set by the president of $900 billion. Now, from that standpoint, when we’re talking about an additional 15,000 slots – which is what we’d really like to see come out of legislation – that’d be about an extra billion dollars a year, or 10 or $12 billion over 10 years. That’s a big amount of money.

But if you think about it in the context of what Medicare spends every year – somewhere close to half a trillion dollars on medical care – it doesn’t seem like a lot to spend to insure that there are actually physicians out there, to care for medical beneficiaries and the rest of the American public.

HANSEN: So what will happen if an additional 30 million Americans get added to the health care rolls, if they’re already now are too few primary care doctors?

Dr. GROVER: Well, I think it’s going to be tough for everybody, but particularly for people who are already underserved. And those are people who are living in rural areas or people who are already financially underserved, don’t have insurance. We’re going to get to a lot of them, but not all of them.

Read or listen to the rest of the interview at NPR.