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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says HIPAA privacy regulations dont negate requirements under the Social Security Act that the results of the most recent nursing home survey must be made available to the public.
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A San Francisco insurer is offering health care providers what it says may be a first in underwriting a professional liability insurance policy specifically geared toward electronic-based and web-enabled transactions for health care operations.
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The new protocol for preventing wrong-site surgery is likely to be considered the standard of care immediately and plaintiffs attorneys will use it against you in court, says a prominent trial attorney. Risk managers should act quickly to implement the protocol now and not wait for the protocols deadline, the attorney adds.
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A patient with stab wounds to the abdomen was taken to an emergency department. He was admitted, and a series of tests were ordered. Once on the floor, his condition deteriorated rapidly. His father came to visit and found his son in a wheelchair at the nurses station. After inquiring as to his condition, the son suffered cardiopulmonary arrest and died in front of the nurses station. The estate brought suit against the hospital and attending surgeon. Both settled prior to trial for a combined $850,000
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As the Oct. 16 deadline for covered entities to comply with HIPAAs electronic code set and transaction provisions approaches, organizations should be intensifying their efforts toward achieving compliance, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
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A survey by Dallas-based ZixCorp, a global provider of e-messaging management and protection services, indicates that many leading health care organizations are transmitting e-mail messages containing federally protected health information over public networks without using appropriate safeguards.
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Physician practices considering going back to paper claims as a way of coping with the Oct. 16 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services deadline for transactions and code sets should resist the temptation, according to John Thomas, CEO of Dallas-based MedSynergies.
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Confusion in research circles over privacy requirements under HIPAA is seen in a flap at the Johns Hopkins Medical School, which sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services asking whether it could request patients permission to use their medical records for research.
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The metrics tracked in your risk management program will vary according to your own needs and concerns, but this list of commonly applicable and useful metrics comes from Alan Rosenstein, MD, medical director of Physician Wellness Services, a consulting company based in Minneapolis:
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As good as metrics and dashboards can be for a risk management program, they can bring legal risks if not handled properly, cautions Ari Markenson, JD, MPH, an attorney with the law firm of Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff in White Plains, NY.