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Oregon Health & Science University has been fined $2.7 million by the HHS OCR. The reason is due to a stolen laptop and using a cloud storage service without a business agreement. The feds are cracking down on hospitals without business agreements.
The University of Mississippi Medical Center was fined $2.75 million for ignoring its known HIPAA security flaws until a laptop was stolen which was password protected but not encrypted. Also, the hospital did not notify patients whose information was on the stolen laptop. Bad Hospital. Bad. Top
The California Medical Board has put Dr. Richard Mantell of Dana Point on 5 years probation for failing to supervise a PA who wrongly prescribed schedule 3 drugs. He was also barred from practice for 15 days and not allowed to supervise PAs. He ran a medical marijuana clinic and was supposed to oversee a PA by signing off on charts. The PA had his license revoked.
Rhode Island has joined the growing number of states that do not allow for restrictive covenants in employment agreements. This state no longer allows them unless they are in the buy sell agreement of a practice and are for no more than five years.
Missouri has new laws that prohibit licensure restriction related to participation in any health insurance plan. Another law signed prohibits the medical board from conditioning licensure on MOC and allows reciprocity to out of state physicians who are not board certified. Non board certified physicians are not to be discriminated against. The governor did veto medical malpractice reforms that would have allowed collateral source, increased standards for expert witnesses and would have required cost estimates to patients for written treatment plans. Top
Medicare has announced a new mandatory program to make hospitals financially liable for the cost and quality associated with bypass surgery. This is done by a bundle payment program. They will start a "value based" program in 98 metropolitan areas in the country. The payment would be for the surgery and a 90 day follow-up. The risk and rewards would be phased in over five years. To date the ballyhooed bundled payments have reduced costs a whole $319 per patient in 28 cardiac and none ortho procedures.
Is there anything a primary physician can do to prevent cancer? The USPSTF doesn't think so. First they said PSA is no good. Then aggressive cancers of the prostate returned. Next it was mammograms. After they poopooed them nobody paid attention. The woman's movement is too strong. Routine physicals are also out. Now the august organization has said primary care physicians should not do an exam for skin cancer in symptom less adults. One should wait for the melanoma to be big enough to metastasize. Is it any wonder that no one in medicine pays them any mind. Top
DISCLAIMER: Although this article is updated periodically, it reflects the author's point of view at the
time of publication. Nothing in this article constitutes legal advice. Readers
should consult with their own legal counsel before acting on any of the
information presented.