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The access reports proposed by the Office for Civil Rights' proposed Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ( HIPAA) accounting of disclosures rule could aid a plaintiff's attorney in filing a malpractice case, but they also could result in abandoning the case, says one plaintiff's attorney.
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When you've made a serious mistake, sometimes it is best to step forward and confess before the government regulators find out on their own. The federal Stark Law, governing physician self-referral, provides a mechanism for voluntary disclosing a violation, but using that option requires a carefully crafted game plan.
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So far, 93 plaintiffs have filed lawsuits against a hospital and alleged sexual abuse by one of the hospital's endocrinologists. The doctor, the hospital's chief of endocrinology from the 1970s to the early 1990s, was accused of taking sexually explicit photos and recording videos of minors who were taking part in an alleged growth study the physician was conducting at the hospital.
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John B. Garver III, JD, and Jennifer Csik Hutchens, JD, attorneys in the Charlotte, NC, office of the law firm Robinson Brandshaw, offer these tips for healthcare risk managers deciding whether to use the Stark Voluntary Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol (SRDP), and if so, how to then prepare a SRDP submission.
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As the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a final rule on implementation of the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) for accountable care organizations (ACOs), others released their notices regarding legal issues related to ACOs.
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The Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has issued its Work Plan for 2012, indicating what areas will be of most interest for investigations and enforcement action. Much of the work plan involves a greater focus on the new issues raised by the changes introduced by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
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In order to facilitate smooth transitions between levels of care and ensure that patients continue to recover after they are discharged from the hospital, Baystate Health, with headquarters in Springfield, MA, is partnering with post-acute providers and meeting regularly to discuss opportunities for improved patient care and partnership.
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A multi-disciplinary initiative to make sure patients receive care in the right setting at the right time for the right reason has resulted in a drop in length-of-stay at the two hospitals in the Memorial Health Care System in Chattanooga, TN.
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Salaries for case managers are increasing but the vast majority of case managers are working far more than the typical 40-hour week, according to the 2011 Hospital Case Management Salary Survey.
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In the December 2011 issue of Case Management Insider we discussed the roles most commonly used by case managers in today's acute care setting. These included the following:
