Also see the satellite edition of this update at www.erstories.net.

You’ve heard of GEICO Direct? Now there’s MedMal Direct. A 20 minute call could save you 20% or more on your med mal insurance.

One physician with 350 medical malpractice claims and 22 criminal counts against him. He had an international warrant for his arrest and was finally caught in Italy after he disappeared from his vacation in Greece. Now he gets a long term chateau in the Greybar Motel.

When did Jerry Springer get into the emergency medical business? Two dimwits in Ithaca, NY decided that they hadn’t sufficiently stabbed someone they were involved in a fight with. So they followed him to the emergency department and started hitting and kicking the guy, screaming “bleed, bitch, bleed!”. Victim’s girlfriend then retaliates with a mop handle. Now the attackers are charged with felonies.

More evidence for having TASERs in emergency departments. Drunk emergency patient punches one nurse, scratched the forearm of another nurse, and punched a third nurse in the face. Now she’s been charged with three felonies.

Jerry Springer Part III. Georgia dimwit hits emergency nurse in arm leaving red marks and leaving herself with $1430 less money in the bank.

Jerry Springer Part IV. Florida patient spits in the face of the emergency department nurse. Nurse later gets low Press Ganey scores because she forgot to say “thank you ma’am may I have another!”

Don’t mess with the nurses. Minneapolis nurses set for another strike. At the heart of the matter are fixed nurse-patient staffing ratios, benefits, and increased pay. Hospital executives respond by stating that they can’t maintain profits without having one nurse and two medical assistants staff the entire hospital. Madness isn’t looking forward to a strike, either.

Good advice from Penn State (boo hiss) about how to save your fingers this Fourth of July weekend. Please be safe and keep your kids away from explosives.

The ultimate Ponzi scheme. Hey everyone, let us deduct some money from your paychecks all your working lives and … you’ll have INSURANCE!
Growing number of physicians no longer taking Medicare – just as baby boomers hit Medicare age. Thirteen percent of AAFP family practice physicians don’t take Medicare – more than double the number from 2004. Even those physicians who still accept Medicare assignment don’t accept anyone who wants to see them. Almost a third of AMA primary care physicians restrict the number of Medicare patients they take. Thirty four percent of AOA members either don’t participate in Medicare or don’t accept new Medicare patients and expects that number to double if the Medicare cuts go through. 117 North Carolina doctors have opted out of Medicare since January and 1,100 New York doctors have left Medicare.
But don’t worry. Everything is going well as we integrate 32 million new insured patients to the government insurance plans and as baby boomers begin to turn 65.
By the way … has anyone seen their Medicare A and B deductibles rise significantly?
Yeah. Great system.
Medicare patients: Get health care while you can.

47 governors ask for additional Medicaid funding to stave off massive budget cuts and potential double-dip recession. Pending cuts would cost 300,000 teachers their jobs nationwide. The federal government imposed “maintenance of effort” requirements on state Medicaid programs which prohibit cutbacks in Medicaid eligibility. Now states must make up the costs by cutting other services.

Pennsylvania hospital considers closing emergency department

St. Louis psychiatric center definitely closing — due to budget cuts

Decrease in narcotic pain prescriptions equals decrease in patient volume. Dosher Memorial Hospital in North Carolina sees decrease in patient volumes after creating and publicizing policy that it will no longer use or prescribe narcotic prescriptions for chronic pain complaints. Have migraines, back and neck pain, dental pain, fibromyalgia or other chronic pain syndromes? Hope Toradol works because you aren’t getting any codeine, morphine, or oxycodone.