In October, CMS started dinging hospitals for what it considers excessive readmission rates. Some top-ranked hospitals, such as Massachusetts General Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., will have to...
In 2007, a bill was passed amending California's whistleblower statute extending the rights previously granted to nonphysician staff members to include physicians as well. The amendment allowed physicians that brought forth patient safety complaints to sue the hospital for...
In July it was revealed that two New Mexico surgeons were involved in nearly 80 malpractice lawsuits after performing back surgeries that only one of the surgeons was qualified to perform.
For many physicians, their first experience with the state medical board is filling out paperwork, popping it in the mail, and waiting patiently for their licenses to be delivered in return. If a physician has a second experience with the medical board, it is usually for a...
According to the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), disciplinary actions against physicians have risen 6.8% nationwide. The number of prejudicial actions (including license suspensions, revocations, and probations) rose 4.1%, from 4,798 in 2010 to 4,996 in 2011, while...
Each year new technology emerges that changes the way physicians and surgeons perform procedures. The use of cutting-edge equipment has increased the quality of patient care by allowing more procedures to be done with minimally invasive techniques, and made previously complex or...
A rash of cases in 2012 have piqued the interest of healthcare systems and legal experts on the matter of peer review protections. These cases serve as a timely reminder that medical staff services departments should take some time to review their procedures and ensure they are...
As part of President Obama's executive order "Improving Regulations and Regulatory Review," which aims to reduce unnecessarily burdensome rules, CMS has granted hospitals and medical staffs greater flexibility in several key areas. The updated Conditions of Participation (CoP)...
It is important that medical staff leaders, MSPs, and all other hospital staff that carry out credentialing, peer review, and medical staff leadership functions have a clear understanding of the basics of civil litigation that affect such important processes. Unless you're a Law...
One year ago, CMS handed down a ruling that allowed hospitals utilizing telemedicine providers to credential physicians through a proxy, using information about the physician from the distant-site facility rather than collecting and verifying information on their own.
