The HHS Inspector General's Office is scrutinizing teaching institutions for Medicare billing fraud. The Assn. of American Medical Colleges is recommending the creation of compliance programs. The nation's largest pro-euthanasia group predicts physicians will be legally assisting patients' deaths by next year. Guessing the Supreme Court will hand the issue back to the states, the Hemlock Society is drafting model legislation. It is the government's second huge false-claims settlement with a national lab company, and the total could rise.
Officials say they hope to announce further recoveries soon.
Back to top. Back to top. Fees were decreased due in part to a recently completed review of the resource-based relative value scale, the basis of Medicare's payment schedule. Doctors as communicators Americans seem to have an unlimited appetite for health and medical information. But a recent public opinion survey revealed that consumers aren't always looking to their physician for the latest breakthrough finding.