News Briefs

Medical societies launch e-cooperative

Ten medical organizations have joined forces to create the Medical Society eCooperative to make Internet-based information and services available to their members. Each society will build, manage, and control its own Internet services separately and will provide its members with an individualized Internet portal. The project will allow the societies to benefit from advanced technology and enhanced services while keeping their unique identities. Physicians will be able to create customized web sites, participate in on-line continuing medical education, and have access to polls, surveys, and other information affecting physicians and their practices.

Medicare MCOs less likely to approve angiography

Medicare patients enrolled in managed care plans are less likely to receive needed coronary angiography following a heart attack than those with traditional Medicare fee-for-service coverage, a new study has shown. The study, by Harvard Medical School and funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, also showed that a significant percentage of elderly heart attack patients did not receive the recommended standard of care for Class I patients, as defined by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association.

According to the study, 46% of Class I patients received the diagnostic procedure if they had fee-for-service coverage, while only 34% of managed care patients received the procedure. Increasing age and the availability of angiography facilities at the hospitals to which they were admitted were also factors in under-use of the procedure, the study showed.