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In the 6/17 edition of the WSJ they had a major article on the need for health lawyers. This is especially true in the M&A and regulatory areas. The article asserts that this will only become a bigger business in the near future.
In the same paper they had a healthcare section where two "experts" debated various health issues. For instance one was should there be more residency slots available and another was whether or not NPs should be able to treat patients without MD supervision. In the latter debate they had the president elect of the American Academy of family Practice vs the president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. The other debates were on organic foods, physician pay for performance, circumcision and companies stopping employee insurance because of Obamacare. There were no winners or losers of the debates only advocates.
The New York Times reports that companies are looking at the Obamacare penalties as enticing. The penalty is $2000 per year per person for the first 30 employees. Since the average cost of insurance is about $11,200 this isn't bad. The flip side is keeping employees happy.
Yet another hospital screws up by not talking to their nurses regarding EMR. This time it's Affinity Medical Center in Ohio. The union representing the direct care nurses at the hospital want a delay in the implementation of the Cerner EMR. They say they have had no input and no significant training with the system. They also have a problem with not being able to override the system. The hospital believes that they have adequately trained all for the roll out. The union states that the financial gain for the hospital is taking over the patient safety aspect.
The Democrats are even after Sebelius. Politico reports that seniors are very confused about Obamacare and some Democrats think Sebelius needs to do better in communicating with them. Pelosi doesn't think so since she was the one who wanted the law passed without reading it. Pelosi and Sebelius agreed with each other that insurance is more secure now than before the law was passed. Top
The AMA has an article telling how bad the government's physician enrollment records are. They are filled with errors and will be the cause of many physicians losing their ability to bill Medicare. They state that about 58% of the PECOS enrollment records are inaccurate as are 48% of NPPES. So far, about 480,000 of 2.8 million records have been scrutinized. This has led to just over 10,000 physician billing privileges being revoked due to felonies and about 83,000 being deactivated for not billing Medicare for at least one year. The OIG has found that when the systems are combined there is a 97% inaccuracy rate. 3% correct is not bad for government work. It is strongly recommended that physicians and other providers that bill Medicare check their enrollment by going to PECOS. 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.