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Because of rising copays and deductibles and underinsurance, patients are getting hit with bigger balances that they don't expect. More and more, patients want to know up front what they will owe.
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The shift from handling verification, eligibility, and collection issues on the front end - before or during registration - is continuing, and this is good news for patient access.
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The dangers of sleep deprivation and fatigue can no longer be ignored.
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In a series of questionable decisions, a California federal court allowed a plaintiff to bring a "failure-to-screen" claim under the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) against a hospital for what was really an ordinary state malpractice claim for "failure to diagnose," and then held that California's $250,000 damages cap wouldn't apply because the EMTALA claim was not a "professional negligence" claim as contemplated by the state's tort reform law - the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA).
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This story concludes a two-part series on liability risks of boarding admitted patients in the ED. This month, we report on the problem of EDs providing an unequal level of care compared to what patients would have gotten on inpatient units.
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Emergency departments pour a lot of resources into compliance with the Joint Commission's standards, including the National Patient Safety Goals. But is there any evidence that compliance with The Joint Commission standards decreases liability risks for an emergency department?
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Over the past decade, several large-scale disasters have tested emergency response teams and healthcare providers. They've also tested the research community's ability to quickly, efficiently and ethically dispatch investigators to do vital research that could help prevent and respond to future disasters.
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Haverford College of Haverford, PA, has spent more than a year dealing with a problem that IRBs do everything they can to avoid: a research noncompliance investigation requested by the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP).
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Honest broker systems which process data and specimens for research by removing identifiers that otherwise would compromise patient privacy have been touted as a smart way to encourage research while still protecting patient privacy as required by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
