THE RIGHT TO KNOW

THE RIGHT TO KNOW
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: At least 500 doctors and dentists around the country have received 10 or more disciplinary actions and malpractice judgments in the last decade. Federal and state regulators know who they are. Hospitals and insurance companies can tap into a computerized listing to find out. Only their patients are in the dark.
Rep. Thomas Bliley, R-Va., wants to change that. He will introduce legislation next week that would open the National Practitioner Data Bank, a federal system for tracking doctors who have been disciplined or found to have committed malpractice. It is a good idea that can save lives.
AMA opposition: But Rep. Bliley's bill will not be approved without a fight. The American Medical Association has long opposed any effort to open the data bank. It argues that raw data on malpractice payments tell nothing about physician competence or the quality of care.
The AMA is right on that point, but mistaken in its opposition to opening the data bank. Only about 20 percent of malpractice settlements involve negligence. And in some instances, malpractice cases are settled by insurance companies to save time or money. But hospitals and insurance companies routinely use malpractice findings to help identify incompetent or negligent doctors.
Most physicians are skilled and caring. Nevertheless, patients benefit from educating themselves. A recent study by the Public Citizen health research group found that 66 percent of doctors cited for incompetence, negligence or substandard care were allowed to continue practicing. Newspapers that reviewed the federal records, after physician and hospital identities were removed, found at least 500 doctors and dentists who had 10 or more disciplinary actions or malpractice judgments in the last decade. But anonymous records don't help patients.
Data bank: Most information in the federal data bank is already available to the public -- if you know where to look and have time to plow through legal documents. Most people don't, so potentially valuable public information goes unused.
At a time when more Americans are going on-line to educate themselves about diseases and treatments, it makes sense to give them access to information about problem doctors. Massachusetts and Ohio have already put their disciplinary records on the Internet. Making federal records available will give the rest of us the same protection.
Every patient has the right to know.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DOT MAKES
Los Angeles Times: After two centuries of pricing stocks in dollars and fractions, the United States' stock exchanges Monday began the switch to dollars and cents, not a revolutionary change and one that will take until next April to implement fully. But, when in place, the cents will add up to millions of dollars in savings for investors.
The current system is an expensive 18th century anachronism paid for by stock purchasers. It allows a wider spread between the bid and ask prices of stocks -- the difference between the best price offered to buy a stock and the best price offered to sell -- and imposes arbitrary limits on price competition. The smallest change in prices on the New York Stock Exchange today is 1/16 of a dollar, or 6.25 cents. It's the trader who pockets the difference.
Incremental price: Under the decimal system, the spread may well drop to a penny. For example, if an investor places an order to buy 100 shares of a given company trading at around $10, the lowest incremental price today would be 10 1/16th of a share, or $10.0625.
With the decimal system in place, the same investor might be able to buy the shares at $10.01 a share. On a 100-share trade, the investor would save $5.25. Small change, perhaps, but at a billion shares trading on the Big Board daily, it adds up.
The stock exchanges have been fighting the decimal conversion tooth and nail, and for a good reason. With the advent of electronic trading, competition among Wall Street brokerages is heating up, depressing spreads. The switch to decimals will put an even greater downward pressure on spreads.
It's not certain yet whether the markets will slice the spreads down to a penny or will limit price changes to a nickel or a dime. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which forced the stock exchanges to go decimal, has left that decision up to the markets. Clearly, in shares that are always in demand, such as Microsoft, the competition will be tougher and the spreads will be narrower. In less-traded shares, that may not be so. The SEC must remain vigilant to make sure the markets don't impose new limits on price changes.
Savings: The switch will bring the U.S. markets in line with the rest of the world, make stock pricing easier to understand and save investors money. Not .50 (half) bad.