WASHINGTON NEWS

Medicare Developments—  The nation's physicians were put on notice that they must sign the detailed medicare hospital forms.The Social Security Administration commented on instances at hospitals in Lancaster and Mount Vernon, Ohio, where several physicians have refused to sign so-called "certification" forms.As a result, the Lancaster-Fairfield Hospital has been refused about $60,000 in federal medicare payments because of the physicians' stand."Certainly the situation in these towns is not indicative of the medical profession generally or the American Medical Association," said a spokesman for the Social Security Administration. He said that once the legislation was passed by Congress, "The American Medical Association has bent over backwards to be cooperative with us and with hospitals."The AMA House of Delegates, at the recent Clinical Convention in Las Vegas, approved a resolution stating that "The medical profession generally has found that the requirement to certify or recertify the medical necessity