We used data from the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) to study the growth of physician malpractice payments. Judgments at trial account for 4 percent of all malpractice payments; settlements account for the remaining 96 percent. The average payment grew 52 percent between 1991 and 2003 (4 percent per year) and now exceeds dollar 12 per capita each year. These increases are consistent wit...

BACKGROUND Conflict of interest among physicians in the context of private industry funding led to the introduction of the Physician Payments Sunshine Act in 2010. This study examined whether private industry funding correlated with scholarly productivity in the respective subspecialties of plastic surgery and the wider academic plastic surgery community. MATERIALS AND METHODS Full-time plast...

BACKGROUND Financial relationships between physicians and industry are extensive and public reporting of industry payments to physicians is now occurring. Our objectives were to describe physician recipients of large total payments from these seven companies, and to examine discrepancies between these payments and conflict of interest (COI) disclosures in authors' concurrent publications. MET...

BACKGROUND Markets for physician services are becoming increasingly concentrated, with many areas being dominated by a few groups. Antitrust authorities are concerned that increasing concentration will lead to inappropriately high payments for physician services from private insurers. The authors examined the association between market concentration and private insurer payments for anesthesia s...

An important shift in U.S. agricultural policy occurred with the 1996 Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act. Although the actual intent and effects of the Act remain a topic of debate, many observers believed that the 1996 legislation signaled a transition toward a new policy environment characterized by diminished government involvement in agricultural markets. Perhaps the bigg...

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the proposed 2017 Medicare physician fee schedule on July 7, 2016, addressing Medicare payments for physicians providing services either in an office or facility setting, which also includes payments for office expenses and quality provisions for physicians. This proposed rule occurs in the context of numerous policy changes, most no...

Trends in malpractice awards and adverse actions (e.g., revocation of provider license) following an act or omission constituting medical error or negligence were examined. The National Practitioner Data Bank was used to compare rates of malpractice reports and adverse actions for physicians, physician assistants (PAs), and nurse practitioners (NPs). During 2005 through 2014, there ranged from ...