A remarkable 42.2% of physicians say they've had a medical liability claim filed against them at some point in the career, according to a recent AMA report. More than 20% of physician respondents say they've been sued more than once. There is some good news: About 65% of the claims filed were dropped, dismissed or withdrawn, AMA researchers found. But the bad news is that defense costs are high, with an average cost of defense pegged at $40,649 and the lowest costs hovering around (read more) ...

It's finally begun: CMS's Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) have started reviewing claims for medical necessity, though at this point only inpatient claims are being targeted. Remember: There are four permanent RACs that have jurisdiction over various regions of the country. Only one of them, CGI Technologies and Solutions, Inc., is targeting medical necessity (also known as "complex" reviews). CGI is the RAC for Region B, which covers Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Wisconsin (read more) ...

The HHS Office of Inspector General estimates POS selection errors triggered more than $13.8 million in overpayments in 2007.

A group of Republican senators recently introduced the Health Care Bureaucrats Elimination Act. The piece of legislation won't do away with HHS or CMS. The proposal would eliminate just one small group of bureaucrats - the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).

The IPAB was created in the health care reform law last spring, but won't officially come together until 2014. The IPAB will be a 15-member group tasked with creating non-binding proposals "to reduce excess cost growth and improve the quality of care for Medicare" patients. The board's Medicare recommendations would become law unless Congress steps in with their own proposal, but any substitute measure from Congress must have the same budgetary impact, says the law Washington law firm McDermott Will & Emery. The board will take actions when Medicare costs are projected to be unstable, but cannot ration care, raise taxes or premiums, eligibility or benefits, according to the law.

The GOP senators didn't vote for the reform bill and they don't like the idea of an IPAB. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said in a statement, "In true fashion of Obama-Reid-Pelosi hubris, the IPAB is the definition of a government takeover. America's seniors deserve the ability to hold elected officials accountable for the decisions that affect their Medicare, but IPAB would take that away from seniors and put power in the hands of politically-appointed Washington bureaucrats. This bill to repeal IPAB is just one step towards starting over with real health care reform that empowers patients instead of beltway bureaucrats."

The health reform law will postpone the projected bankruptcy of the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund by 12 years, according to the latest annual report from the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees. The fund, which is where Medicare hospital payments come from, was expected to become insolvent by 2017, according to last year's Trustees' Report. Now that red-letter date will be in 2029.

Remember: The Trustees' Report doesn't issue insolvency dates for the Medicare Supplementary Insurance (SMI) program -- which is the source of Part B payments -- because the SMI is expected to be funded into the "indefinite future." This is because current law automatically provides financing for the SMI (read more) ...