CMS’ 2014 final rule clarified its position that categories of non-physician practitioners could be included on the medical staff; it also enabled medical staffs to privilege registered dietitians (RD) and other nutrition professionals to order therapeutic patient diets. However, these...
The medical staff exists to ensure the quality of care, which is dependent primarily on individuals granted privileges in the organization. The way the organized medical staff accomplishes this is through competency determination across the lifetime of a practitioner at the...
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina (the "Court") denied a hospital's assertion that a state law peer review privilege protected its documents related to the death of a patient in response to a request from Disability Rights of North Carolina (DRNC), North...
The National Board of Physicians and Surgeons (NBPAS) has announced an alternative to the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program for continued certification in a medical specialty. The NBPAS recertification application takes less than 15...
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced its intent to fundamentally reform how it pays providers for treating Medicare patients. The reforms aim to reduce the volume of unnecessary procedures while improving patient outcomes. The agency is “setting clear goals—...
