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Medicaid now pays for 26% of total mental health expenditures, and rising costs of these services is a big concern for state Medicaid directors, according to a recent 50-state Medicaid budget survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation's Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, Headed for a Crunch: An Update on Medicaid Spending, Coverage and Policy Heading into an Economic Downturn.
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This is the first in a two-part series about the hidden risks and liabilities of medical helicopters.
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When a medical helicopter goes down, there often is more than one cause. Bad risk assessment, insufficient technology, and pilot error can combine to create a tragedy.
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If you are going to use medical helicopters, Don Maciejewski, JD, an aviation attorney with the Jacksonville, FL, law firm of Zisser Robison, recommends that risk managers be prepared for the worst. Make sure you are adequately insured to cover the payouts from a crash that kills five people on a nonurgent mission, he says.
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A hospital in New York is at the center of a storm of criticism, bad publicity, and possible criminal charges after an employee failed to report the gunshot wound of NFL star Plaxico Burress, as required by law.
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Emergency department physicians and nurses are deeply concerned about the ability of the nation's hospitals to deal with the medical implications of a radioactive dirty bomb or other terrorist attacks involving radioactive materials, according to a new study. Experts say the findings should be a warning to risk managers that action is needed.
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News: A man injured his neck and back after diving into the bottom of a shallow lake. He was transported to the hospital, where physicians became concerned that the man's central spinal canal had been compromised.
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These are details of some of the most recent medical helicopter crashes:
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An incident such as the Plaxico Burress gunshot injury should prompt risk managers to review all relevant contracts, bylaws, and related policies related to the legal obligation to report gunshot wounds, says Martin Kalish, MD, JD, a partner with the law firm of Arnstein & Lehr in Miami.
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A California hospital's efforts to improve the care of acutely ill patients who are in the emergency department or on medical-surgical floors rather than the intensive care unit has made it a 2008 recipient of the 12th annual Ernest Amory Codman Award, awarded by The Joint Commission.
