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These tips for complying with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) are offered by Veronica A. Marsich, JD, a shareholder with the law firm of Smith Haughey in East Lansing, MI.
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When two medical tragedies struck Susan Sheridans family, one of her responses was typical and, most would say, entirely justified. She contacted an attorney and sued the health care providers for malpractice. But Sheridan took a different path from most plaintiffs by focusing more on quality improvement than the amount of money in the settlements.
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Where plaintiffs once focused entirely on the settlement amount, even when they had heartfelt grievances, todays plaintiffs are much more likely to demand that you change whatever they think led to their tragedies.
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When it comes to EMTALA, you dont want to just toe the line, says Bryan Liang, PhD, a professor of law, medicine, and public policy at California Western School of Law in San Diego. You want to be so far away from the line that no one could even suggest you crossed it.
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Even if your hospital was not named in the recent wave of lawsuits against charitable providers, the alarm bell is ringing and you need take action now.
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Nearly every document that makes any mention of a patient in your facility can be considered protected health information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), says Veronica A. Marsich, JD, a shareholder with the law firm of Smith Haughey in East Lansing, MI, specializing in health care issues.
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A post-kidney transplant patient was admitted to a hospital with urosepsis and was placed in the intensive care unit. He was intubated; but when his airway became obstructed, efforts to correct the situation were unsuccessful, and he died. The case settled for $800,000.
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A young man went to an emergency department in the afternoon complaining of discomfort in his throat. Surgery was performed to address an abscess. That evening, after his family had gone home, he suffered from cardiac arrhythmia, went into a coma, and died three days later. His wife and two sons brought suit for wrongful death.
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Medical malpractice insurance premiums are 17.1% lower in states that have capped court awards, although the lack of such tort reform measures in other states does not fully explain recent jumps in what physicians pay to cover the cost of malpractice suits, says Kenneth E. Thorpe, PhD, chairman of the health policy and management department at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta.
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A behavioral health care center in Mississippi is proving that a concentrated effort to reduce restraint can yield great improvements not only for the patients but also for the bottom line of the health care facility.
