APA votes against psychologist interrogations
Petition resolution to become policy in 2009
Members of the American Psychological Association in Washington, DC, have approved a resolution to prohibit psychologists from working in settings where "persons are held outside of, or in violation of, either International Law or the U.S. Constitution."
International Law was defined as the U.N. Convention Against Torture and the Geneva Conventions, which also prohibit torture of prisoners of war.
The resolution was passed with 8,792 voting in favor, and 6,157 voting against the resolution.
The APA in a news release said the resolution "represents a significant change in APA's policy regarding the involvement of psychologists in interrogations." The petition resolution limits the roles of psychologists in certain defined settings where people are detained to working directly for the detainees or for an independent third party to protect human rights, or to providing treatment to other military personnel.
The resolution will become official APA policy at the organization's next annual meeting, which is in August 2009. At that time, the organization said the APA council of Representatives also will determine what further action may be necessary to implement the policy.
This most recent petition expands on the 2007 APA resolution, which called on the U.S. government to ban at least 19 specific abusive interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, that are regarded as torture by international standards.
The 2007 resolution also recognized that "torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment can result not only from the behavior of individuals, but also from the conditions of confinement."
OIG says no problem with patient gift cards
Cards a way to say "sorry"
If you want to give patients gift cards as a way to say "sorry" for that long wait in the emergency department or anything else that left them unhappy, feel free. The government says you're not violating any prohibitions on improper remuneration.
The Department of Health and Human Services'Office of Inspector General recently issued an advisory opinion in response to a specific query from a health system that wanted to issue the gift cards but first wanted to make sure the plan would not violate any rules. The OIG opinion technically only applies to that unnamed health system, but such opinions are generally regarded as a broadly applicable clarification of how the OIG would interpret similar situations.
The health system proposed offering gift cards to patients who were left dissatisfied by service shortfalls, such as a delay of more than 30 minutes. The gift cards could be used at local retailers but could not be redeemed for cash or health care services. The health system also planned to track the cards to make sure that no patient received more than $50 in gift cards in one year.
The OIG opinion states that the plan "would not constitute prohibited remuneration" under the anti-kickback statute, which makes it a criminal offense to knowingly and willfully offer, pay, solicit or receive any remuneration to induce or reward referrals of items or services reimbursable by a federal health care program. Providing gift cards to patients could violate the statute, but the specific plan proposed by the health system is sufficiently limited to avoid that conclusion, the opinion states.
"In these circumstances, we conclude that the gift cards in the proposed arrangement will be nominal in value and will not constitute cash or cash equivalents for purposes of our enforcement," the OIG wrote.
For the full OIG opinion, go to http://oig.hhs.gov/fraud.
JC urges patients to speak about pain
Program is titled "Speak Up"
The Joint Commission reported it is launching a campaign to help people work with their care providers in managing pain.
The initiative is part of the organization's Speak Up program and coincided with the Pain Awareness Month in September.
A brochure on the topic titled "What You Should Know about Pain Management" identifies questions and answers to aid in patients'understanding of treatment for pain.
Among the topics covered are:
- talking about and describing pain;
- understanding pain treatments;
- managing pain;
- questions to ask caregivers.
Health records exposed by security breach
A security breach involving the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, and other military hospitals exposed sensitive information on about 1,000 patients, according to a statement released by the Army.
The information included names, Social Security numbers, and birth dates, leading to concerns about identity theft for the patients involved. The computer file that was breached did not include information such as medical records, or the diagnosis or prognosis for patients, according to officials with the hospitals involved.
The Army is investigating how the data security was compromised, and Walter Reed officials declined to say exactly what happened until the investigation is complete. A Walter Reed spokesman did confirm that the computer file was found on a "nongovernment, nonsecure computer network."
Officials at Walter Reed learned of the breach on May 21 from an outside data mining company, which found the file while working for another client.
Members of the American Psychological Association in Washington, DC, have approved a resolution to prohibit psychologists from working in settings where "persons are held outside of, or in violation of, either International Law or the U.S. Constitution."You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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