Word: shields
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...that may soon change. Last week the national medical-insurance organization Blue Cross-Blue Shield, which pays medical bills for 112 million Americans, announced that it would pick up the tab for such tests only if the patient's physician specifically ordered them...
...policy, which should go into effect within about a year, comes amid increasing criticism that hospital tests are being overused and thus contributing substantially to the nation's skyrocketing medical-care bill, now a whopping $182 billion. The recommendation is part of a sweeping Blue Cross-Blue Shield pro gram designed to keep the insurance premiums at current levels. A year ago the "Blues" stopped paying for 42 surgical procedures considered of doubtful value, saving an estimated $27.4 million a year. This year they plan to phase out payment for 26 obsolete laboratory tests. But the admissions tests, primarily...
Some $2.4 billion is now spent annually in the U.S. on the "batteries" - 37 mil lion hospital admissions at an average of $66 per patient. By making them op tional, Blue Cross-Blue Shield ? could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Instituting the economies will f not be easy. As Walter J. McNerney, national Blue Cross-Blue 1 Shield president, explains, "Doctors must change their practices." Trouble is, in recent years the trend has been toward more tests. "Fearing malpractice suits, many physicians defensively order diagnostic tests simply to get them on the record even if they provide...
...leaves reporters everywhere guessing about the risk of fighting subpoenas. In Branzburg vs. Hayes (1972), the leading pronouncement on the subject, the Justices ruled 5 to 4 that reporters could not refuse to testify before a grand jury. The court did suggest, however, that states could enact "shield" laws to protect a reporter's sources and notes. New Jersey and 25 other states have them. In Farber's case, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided that the shield law "must yield," because it came into conflict with a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial...
...case was more typical of shield law conflicts because, unlike Farber's case, I at least got a hearing," said Porterfield, who termed himself "a purist who still believes that the first amendment gives blanket coverage to reporters...