Healthcare Risk Management – December 1, 2011
December 1, 2011
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Tread carefully when using Stark voluntary disclosure protocol
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. -
Tips for reporting Stark violation
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. -
Prepare for aftermath after SRDP submission
Remember that even though the whole point of the Stark Voluntary Self-Referral Disclosure Protocol (SRDP) at least from the provider's perspective is to settle potential Stark liabilities for less than its full exposure, the government wants to know about your entire potential liability. -
HIPAA access reports could be used in med mal
If a proposed rule is enacted by the federal government, patients will be able to request an accounting of who accessed their electronic health records, a development that some legal experts say could put hospitals and other providers at risk. -
Access reports can make records more complete
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. -
Mandatory reporting for never events jumps
More states are mandating adverse event reporting, and this trend could have a significant impact on healthcare providers, says Kathryn Schulke, BSN, a principal with the law firm of Booz Allen Hamilton in Rockville, MD. Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation requiring adverse event reporting, she says. -
CMMI offering funds for safety improvements
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. -
More providers opt for self-insurance
The move toward physician collaboration is likely to create a number of risk management challenges, along with more interest in physician self-insurance, according to the results of the 12th annual Hospital and Physician Professional Liability Benchmark Analysis from Aon Global Risk Consulting and the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM). -
Quarter of claims linked to 5 HACs
These are some highlights of the 12th annual Hospital and Physician Professional Liability Benchmark Analysis from Aon Global Risk Consulting and the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management: -
26% of providers say breach in past year
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. -
Murder charges cleared after patient death
Six months after Richard Teh, MD, an internist in Las Vegas, NV, was handcuffed and taken to jail from his office as patients, staff, and partners looked on, murder charges against him were dropped, according to a statement from the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), which has been monitoring the case. -
OIG issues Work Plan for the next year
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) -
Final rule on ACOs comes with clarifications
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. -
Failure to respond to complaints about docs leads to suits, $19.75 million in settlements
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.