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The federal Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, which takes effect Oct. 17, got a lot of press for making it tougher for consumers to file bankruptcy. [...]

Les Kotzer, an estate lawyer and co-author of 'The Family Fight: Planning to Avoid It,'' says leaving a vacation home to your children can trigger a feud if it's not [...]

1929 Stock market crash: Market loses 62% of value in two months, triggering Great Depression. 1933 Securities Act: In aftermath of crash, government increases regulation. Securities registration and financial disclosures [...]

Many Chicago-area hospitals now forbid parents from videotaping the births of their babies. The bans are being implemented as malpractice insurance premiums for obstetrician-gynecologists rise and the fear of being [...]

Given all the talk of a medical malpractice crisis, there's surprising news buried in the files at the Cook County courthouse: Malpractice lawsuits declined 24%, to 814 cases, in the [...]

If the Federal Trade Commission succeeds in forcing Evanston Northwestern Healthcare to divest Highland Park Hospital, rivals may have the chance to bid on a rare commodity: a newly renovated [...]

Smokers won't shun restaurants in favor of TV dinners at home if the Chicago City Council adopts a proposed smoking ban. But a ban would change their typical restaurant experience. [...]

The agreement has weak medical necessity provisions and could strip patient appeal rights, the groups say. AFTER CLOSELY INSPECTING AETNA U.S. Healthcare's settlement with the state of Texas, the AMA [...]

GERI ASTON contributed to this report. Opponents say a physician union's boycott of Merck pharmaceuticals is partly to blame, but the bill's sponsor and the AMA say Republican fund-raising efforts [...]

AN INDEPENDENT PRACTICE ASSOciation of 26 general surgeons in the Austin, Texas, area and their six competing general surgery practices agreed to settle charges that they conspired to fix prices [...]

AT A GLANCE It is unclear whether a federal investigation is targeting urologists who may have billed Medicare for free drug samples or the drugmakers who supplied them. THE JUSTICE [...]

AT A GLANCE A physician antitrust relief measure cleared a major obstacle, but several powerful members of Congress are threatening more roadblocks to prevent House passage. LEGISLATION THAT WOULD ALLOW [...]

AT A GLANCE The Supreme Court seems reluctant to impose a ruling that could create a cause of action against physicians who accept financial incentives for limiting care. Washington THE [...]

AT A GLANCE The AMA, the Medical Assn. of Georgia and three pediatricians are suing Aetna, alleging that the insurer is not complying with the state's prompt-payment law. As TRIAL [...]

AT A GLANCE Responding to an emerging trend, the AMA asks the federal government to rule on whether hospitals' exclusive credentialing policies violate fraud statutes. HOSPITAL ADMITTING PRIVILEGES HAVE LONG [...]

AT A GLANCE Federal prosecutors are resisting a plea by the AMA and the Utah Medical Assn. to protect patient privacy in a Medicare fraud investigation targeting doctors. THE AMA [...]

AT A GLANCE The medical community sees a recent federal ruling as a curb on draconian false claims law, but whistle-blowers see it as a threat to anti-fraud efforts. A [...]

AT A GLANCE AMA leaders, disappointed by Republican House leadership's delay of a vote on the Campbell bill, still see its passage as a possibility next year. PHYSICIANS' HIGH HOPES [...]

AT A GLANCE House Judiciary Committee Chair Henry Hyde's decision to allow a vote provides impetus to a measure that would grant collective bargaining rights to physicians. WHEN REP. TOM [...]

AT A GLANCE The case of a New York pulmonologist is the latest to highlight the risk of whistle-blower lawsuits filed by employees and colleagues. AS THE GOVERNMENT BROADCASTS its [...]

AT A GLANCE Unnecessary, degrading, ineffective, wasteful - these are responses from doctors to a state law compelling them to send fingerprints to the health department by Jan. 1, 2000. [...]

AT A GLANCE Hospitals that reward physicians for cutting clinical costs are sometimes illegally paying them to reduce services for Medicare and Medicaid patients, according to federal officials. HOSPITALS AND [...]

AT A GLANCE Physicians are bolstered by an appeals court's ruling overturning a $100,000 fine for a patient transfer decision, but other courts may not be following suit. IF EVER [...]

AT A GLANCE DR. AMWAY Stiff opposition greets an AMA ethics report discouraging physicians from selling health products from their offices. Chicago A CONTROVERSIAL ETHICS report that would have put [...]

Physicians begging for relief from federal antitrust laws and the negotiating tactics of heavy-handed health plans will be delighted to meet Rep. Tom Campbell (R, Calif.). The Stanford law professor [...]

The Illinois Supreme Court recently ruled that hospitals in that state can employ physicians, overturning two lower court decisions that held such employment violates the state's ban on corporate practice [...]

AT A GLANCE A federal appeals court recognizes a patient's right to sue a physician-owned health plan, seeing a potential conflict between its patient care and administrative roles. THOSE WHO [...]

AT A GLANCE An AMA-drafted bill promises antitrust relief at the state level. Is the promise too big to fulfill? IN AN EFFORT TO COUNTER THE sometimes heavy-handed negotiating tactics [...]

AT A GLANCE The federal government is looking at physician practice mergers and collective bargaining groups for violations of antitrust laws. Washington EVERY YEAR FOR THE last two decades, the [...]

AT A GLANCE Collective bargaining by competing physicians is still illegal, even when a 'third-party messenger' is used, 29 Tampa surgeons recently learned. THREE MONTHS AFTER FORMING the Federation of [...]

AT A GLANCE FAITH HEALING Leaders from the AMA, state and specialty societies warn federal reimbursement for Christian Science and other religion-based nursing homes may deter needed medical care. THE [...]

AT A GLANCE A TREND-SETTER / Other states waiting for the Texas ruling are likely to enact similar HMO liability laws, analyst predict. U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore ruled that [...]

IMPATIENT PATIENTS Legal experts say health plans or physician offices that 'stack' too many patients into the same treatment slots face a. new cause of action. EXASPERATED THAT HE WAS [...]

ANTI-DUMPING LAW Experts look to the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify issues involving the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. THE CASE OF ROBERTS V. GALEN of Virginia Inc. [...]

ANTITRUST THREAT Federal enforcers are looking at group practice mergers that may threaten competition, but no recent actions have been taken. San Diego AFTER A RELATIVE LULL IN enforcement threats [...]

PROTECTING PRIVACY New AMA guidelines on patient confidentiality go beyond current legislative or regulatory proposals. Chicago WHEN IT COMES TO PATIENT privacy and confidentiality the AMA's House of Delegates has [...]

A federal judge last month dismissed a lawsuit that sought to end the controversial audit of Medicare Part B physician billing at teaching hospitals, calling the legal action premature. The [...]

The nearly universal practice of paying physician practice management companies on a percentage basis may be illegal, according to officials at the Dept. of Health and Human Services. The HHS [...]