Modern Healthcare (2/17/03) reports that, "The chances of a federal malpractice reform bill becoming law took a hit as deep-rooted partisan differences surfaced…".  Republicans are looking at capping damages as the solution.  Meanwhile, Democrats introduced a bill to repeal a long-standing antitrust exemption allowing insurers to share claim data, which democrats have alleged is part of a rate-setting conspiracy.

CMS Revises Physician Fee Schedule, Raising Rate by 1.6 Percent

Physicians and other health care providers will receive a 1.6 percent increase in their Medicare reimbursement rates

for the remainder of the year, in accordance with legislation that required a recalculation of their fee schedule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said Feb. 26. The revised 2003 final Medicare physician fee schedule is set to be published in the Feb. 28 "Federal Register" and will become effective on March 1. "The revisions in this final rule constitute technical corrections to the final rule published on Dec. 31, 2002," CMS said in the rule.

Feb. 27 -- BNA's Health Care Daily Report

4. Tucker Arensberg Attorney Publishes Monograph for American Health Lawyers Association

In January 2003, Mike Cassidy's monograph, "Immunity for Credentialing Decisions Under Federal and State Law" was published as a Health Lawyers: Expert Series for the American Health Lawyers Association. The following is an outline of the article:

• Introduction to Peer Review
• Credentialing Models
• Immunity for Participation and Decisions in The Peer Review Process
• Confidentiality
• Bylaws as Contracts
• Data Bank Querying and Reporting
• Managing the Data Bank

For a copy of this article, please contact Mike at (412) 594-5515 or via e-mail at mcassidy@tuckerlaw.com. Members of the American Health Lawyers Association "Member Section" may access the full article at www.healthlawyers.org/pg/cpr/briefings.cfm.