In the age of healthcare alignment and consolidation, hospitals are getting more creative in buying practices and offering doctors employment contracts. Physicians might not get big dollars for their practice, but experts say they have leverage to ask for and get the practice set-up they want.

"In the new environment, physicians want influence and decision-making power around how they're going to be managed," said Charles Shabino, MD, senior medical adviser for the Wisconsin Hospital Assn. "It's probably more of negotiation than it has ever been."

Continue...

Fewer than half of physicians think they should refuse gifts from drug companies, a Medscape survey on medical ethics has found.

Tallying up responses from more than 10,000 physicians to its August 2010 survey, Medscape also found the physicians sharply divided on such issues as physician-assisted suicide and life support.

"What came through loud and clear through this survey is that by and large, doctors try to do what they believe is right," Steven Zatz, MD, executive vice president of WebMD Professional Services, Medscape's parent company, said in a press release. "However, the results also highlight the complex ethical issues confronting physicians and their efforts to make appropriate decisions."

Continue...