By Bob Drake A federal district court has denied immunity under the Health Care Quality Improvement Act (HCQIA) to a hospital, individual members of its Board of Trustees, Peer Review Committee (PRC), Medical Executive Committee (MEC), Fair Hearing Committee FEC, and the hospital’s Chief Medical Officer, in a lawsuit brought by a physician challenging a number… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Physicians
Subscribe to Physicians RSS FeedCMS Issues Advisory Opinion Approving Physician Noncompete
By Bob Drake In a recently issued Advisory Opinion the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved a physician noncompete agreement included in a hospital recruitment package that would restrict the physician from practicing at five hospitals located within a 25-mile radius from the hospital. The noncompete did not restrict the physician from practicing… Continue Reading
Disruptive Physician Behavior Can Contribute to Medical Errors
By Bob Drake A number of recent studies have come to similar conclusions – disruptive physician behavior is not only an employee relations problem, but also can impair quality and contribute to adverse events and medical errors. The American Medical Association (AMA) and other professional groups have recognized that outbursts of anger, belittling comments, suppression of… Continue Reading
Health Care Practitioner Dress Code Bill Proposed in New York
By George O’Brien New York is considering new laws that would require health care providers to wear short sleeve shirts and follow other hygienic dress practices while treating patients. Bills introduced in the New York Assembly and Senate would establish a “health care practitioner hygienic dress code council” for health care practitioners and the hospitals and… Continue Reading
Physicians as Hospital Employees: California Ban Eroding
California is one of only a handful of states that prohibit hospitals from directly employing physicians, with limited exceptions, such as for non-profit teaching hospitals. This prohibition is slowly eroding, however. On June 28, 2010, the California Assembly passed SB 726 (pdf), which would amend California Business and Professions Code §2401 to expand a pilot program authorizing… Continue Reading
Jail Time for Physician’s HIPAA Violation Highlights Need to Redouble Compliance Efforts
A visiting cardiothoracic surgeon from China, working as a researcher at UCLA School of Medicine, became the first person sentenced to prison for unauthorized access to medical records in violation of HIPAA. The few criminal convictions for HIPAA violations to date have involved monetary gain, such as a hospice worker’s use of patient records to… Continue Reading
Exodus of General Internists Adds to Primary Care Shortage
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wants health care reform to “usher in a new era for primary care providers,” but a new report warns that increasing numbers of general internists are leaving the field. A survey conducted by the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) found… Continue Reading
Decrease in Hours Worked and Fees Paid to Physicians Over the Last Decade May Have Significant Implications
A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that the average number of weekly hours worked by physicians decreased by about 7% between 1996 to 2008 after remaining stable for two decades. The hours of resident physicians showed an even larger decrease – 9.8% – presumably as a result… Continue Reading