Michael Pretzer

Raising a family costs plenty, but these tax tips may lessen the price.

Organized medicine has clout, but practicing physicians are more effective at the influence game.

Medicare:The managed care program isn't working the way Congress intended. Congress:Legislators begin their effort to curb medical errors. Reimbursement:HCFA corrects the way it calculates annual changes to physician payments. Bureaucracy:Do the dead really need Medicare? Legislation: Stark's newest idea: Eliminate the freebies doctors get from drug companies. Data Watch: Adding up the pain and suffering from managed care.

MEDICARE, GOVERNMENT ACTION, THE UNINSURED, POST MORTEM.

You'll lament your fleeting youth, and you long for the quainter, kinder days of medicine. But you won't miss the diseases that we've conquered, and you're hopeful that a new era will bring more cures for patients--and fewer hassles for doctors.

Medicare: Seniors still aren't sure what's going on; Reimbursement: Are hospitals using physician practices to get larger Medicare payments; Lobbying: Medicare reform resuscitated?; Y2K: Time to test your readiness; Small Talk: Questioning your motivation