Legal and practical healthcare information.
As another year of medical residency registration begins across the U.S., J-1 physicians in their final year of training find themselves at a critical crossroads: they can return to their respective home countries at the conclusion of their training, as required by Section 212(e) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), or they can attempt …
Continue reading “J-1 Conrad Waivers: Should I Stay or Should I Go?”
Updated as of December 2018 With the ever-growing opioid crisis and the President’s call to action to address that crisis particularly through the signing of the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act or the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, P.L. 115-271 in October, 2018 , primary …
Continue reading “HIPAA, the Opioid Crisis and the Role of Part 2”
In Danny P. v. Catholic Health Initiatives, 891 F.3d 1155 (9th Cir. 2018), the Ninth Circuit clarified the full extent of the “parity” required in the federal mental health parity law1 which has been in place since 2008. The Case In Danny P., the Ninth Circuit held that a particular group health plan (the Catholic …
Continue reading “Mental Health Parity Really Does Mean Equal Benefits”
Electronic medical records (“EMRs”) have become vital to both hospitals and physician’s practices. They are a secure, electronic version of a patients’ medical history and often include all of the clinical data relevant to a patient’s care, including demographics, progress notes, problems, medications, vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, laboratory data and radiology reports. The …
Continue reading “What To Do When Your Hospital’s System Crashes”
Given the ever-expanding landscape of privacy laws and regulations, employers are becoming increasingly aware that they are responsible for data breaches caused by their employees. When looking to formally put obligations upon employees to modify employee conduct, employers tend to start with policy, such as in an employee handbook to allow a means of internal …
Continue reading “How Employers Can Handle Their Biggest Threat to Data Privacy, Their Employees”
Michigan, like the rest of the country, suffers from an opioid epidemic. Every day, more than 100 Americans die from an opioid overdose1. Some economists estimate that the opioid crisis has cost the U.S. economy more than $1 trillion since 2001 and is on pace to cost an additional $500 billion through 20202. The profligate …
Continue reading “Opioid Litigation Comes To Michigan – What Physicians And Hospitals Need To Know”
A 2017 Medscape survey indicated that over half of responding doctors had been sued for malpractice. The number one reason? Failure to diagnose a medical condition, given by 31% of respondents. Nearly half of doctors surveyed who were sued for malpractice spent between eleven and fifty hours in court, meetings with lawyers, or in other …
-Earlier this month, on May 7, 2018, the Senate passed bipartisan S.B. 1732, entitled the “Improving Access to Behavioral Health Information Technology Act.” The bill, which is currently in the House of Representatives, aims to provide “incentive payments to behavioral health providers for the adoption and use of certified electronic health record technology…to improve the …
Continue reading “May Highlights: National Healthcare Law News”
How can providers increase quality of care while reducing cost to patients? The answer is through innovation, creativity, increased patient responsibility, partnership, and real-time flow of information. Here are just a few ideas to consider in reaching this overarching goal. While none of the ideas articulated below are novel or groundbreaking on their own, they …
March and April will be critical months for employers who sponsor ERISA-governed employee benefit plans that provide benefits subject to the disability claim procedures. Any claims filed after April 1, 2018 will be subject to a new final rule issued by the Department of Labor (“DOL”) in December of 2016. Plans subject to these rules …