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A well-done meta-analysis showed that green tea, either as a beverage or as a supplement, could help lower total and LDL cholesterol levels in a statistically significant manner, but has no effect on HDL. The degree of clinical impact is debatable; what is not debatable is the poor quality of most studies on green tea and cholesterol.
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The SELECT Trial investigators report on nearly 10 years of follow-up of participants in a study of selenium and vitamin E and the risk of prostate cancer. A small but statistically significant increased risk of prostate cancer appears to be associated with taking vitamin E supplements. These results are in disagreement with others in the literature, and the authors present no plausible biological explanation for them. Nonetheless, the balance of evidence does not appear to support any recommendation that physicians advise their middle-aged and elderly patients to begin vitamin E supplementation for prostate cancer prevention.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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Based on the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) model, the Partnership for Patients is a recently announced, public-private partnership aimed at reducing injuries and complications by 40% and hospital readmissions by 20% over three years.
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About one-quarter of healthcare respondents reported that their organization has experienced a security breach in the past year, according to new survey results from the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) in Chicago.
