Fixing a system built on blame and revenge will require bold ways of analyzing mistakes and a radical embrace of openness. By Dr. Darshak Sanghavi DANIELLE BELLEROSE WENT THROUGH HELL for two years trying to conceive, undergoing nine rounds of fertility treatments before she finally got pregnant with twins in late 2003. Shortly thereafter, the [...]
After a cautious and rigorous analysis of national malpractice claims, Johns Hopkins patient safety researchers estimate that a surgeon in the United States leaves a foreign object such as a sponge or a towel inside a patient’s body after an operation 39 times a week, performs the wrong procedure on a patient 20 times a [...]
By Ike Devji, JD Imagine that after two decades in business with 100 plus employees and not a single EEOC or employment complaint your business is facing a class action lawsuit by disgruntled former employees discharged for cause. Imagine that these employees call every other employee they can reach and try to get them to [...]
Article by Article by Peter J. Guffin I. Introduction Data security breach notification has become a significant compliance risk for most businesses today. A data security breach can disrupt business operations, damage brand reputation and customer relationships, and attract government investigations and class action lawsuits. The Ponemon Institute, which conducts annual benchmark studies concerning the [...]
By Jeff Weinstein and Scott Honiberg for HealthLeaders Media, July 12, 2010 President Obama recently signed off on legislation that very likely will result in a substantial increase in lawsuits against health care providers. Intended to combat fraud in the Medicare & Medicaid programs, several amendments in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act significantly [...]
Frank A. Jones, Mints Insurance Post-payment Audits are a thing of the future and they will affect many more than are expecting it. The question these days is not whether or not you will be a target, but when. By now you know that, at the direction of Congress, the Department of Health & Human [...]
Dom Nicastro, for HealthLeaders Media, July 8, 2010 The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Thursday released a proposed rule to modify the HIPAA privacy, security, and enforcement rules, extending HIPAA compliance requirements to subcontractors of business associates (BA) and strengthening patient rights to health information privacy. According to the Office for Civil Rights [...]
Government Also Files Suit Against New York Hospital for Inflating Charges to Obtain Higher Medicare Reimbursements WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The United States has entered into a settlement with a New Jersey hospital and filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit against a New York hospital involving allegations that the hospitals defrauded Medicare, [...]
Dom Nicastro, for HealthLeaders Media , September 7, 2010 The number of healthcare entities reporting breaches of unsecured PHI affecting 500 or more individuals has crossed the 150 mark, nearly one year after the first such breach was reported. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) breach notification website lists 153 entities as of Thursday, Sept. [...]
In 40 years as a highly regarded cancer surgeon, Dr. Tapas K. Das Gupta had never made a mistake like this. As with any doctor, there had been occasional errors in diagnosis or judgment. But never, he said, had he opened up a patient and removed the wrong sliver of tissue, in this case a segment of the eighth rib instead of the ninth.