Of the many factors that make improving the health system difficult, few challenges are greater than the misty-eyed recollection – often from genuinely distinguished practitioners – of how great things used to be.  Doctors were highly regarded authority figures, pure and beloved, while patients were meek and grateful in the presence of such brilliance and expertise.

Researchers and clinicians seeking to strengthen these relationships with industry deserve to be celebrated, not demonized.

Congress will once again put off a huge cut in Medicare payments to physicians, but that will not solve the underlying problems of fee-for-service payment.  

Efforts to limit the commercial use of data on physician prescribing could have broad implications for regulatory programs that promote drug safety. At issue are a series of laws pursued by state legislators that would restrict access to information on the prescriptions written by individual doctors.

The trustees report from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services out Monday uses strong language to describe the uncertainty of its predictions in both the short- and long-term for the medical insurance program aimed at America's seniors.

With 48.3 million people covered by Medicare in 2011 -- and...

The policy climate that will greet new doctors will put the prospect of rich doctor-patient relationships under further strain, but an induction ritual acknowledging as much would not hurt.

The Obama team promised its health plan would fix the system by which doctors are paid under Medicare; however, the system was not reformed and doctors will not get the promised short-term hike in Medicare's current rates.