Like the insured persons in the story below, follow your instincts when it comes to insurance claims you think have been improperly denied. If you suspect something, they probably are improperly denied. The rejection of van Terheyden’s claim was typical for Cigna, one of the country’s largest insurers. The company has built a system that […]
A famous critical care doctor once told me that “they want candy stripers delivering medicine.” That choice of the phrase probably dates both of us, but hopefully, it’s not too prehistoric to make the point. He was griping about what he viewed as an institutional assault on physician judgment and prerogatives. Long after that, I […]
When I represented hospitals, my boss used to stress bedside manner as the most effective risk management. It’s been forty years and the industry is still trying to figure out a way to make that stick. Healthcare is fully embracing the concept of consumerism, and with that comes the need for consumer and patient satisfaction—and […]
Why aren’t medical students trained in ethics the same way law students are? Ethics is required in school and your knowledge of ethics is tested in a stand-alone bar examination before a lawyer can start practicing. Here’s a link to a BMJ article on it. With consent, medical students get to observe most surgical procedures, […]
Here is the link to today’s story. FAU team receives $1 million grant to identify effective fall prevention strategies for older adults Nursing homes and assisted living facilities are governed by special rules. These rules are separate from the normal statutes and rules applied to doctors and hospitals in medical malpractice cases. You can learn […]
I can remember when I first started reviewing medical records. They don’t teach that skill in law school and it felt more like looking for needles in a haystack, turning the pages, and trying to decipher the different handwriting, acronyms, and shorthand. Some mysteries never get solved and some were solved with the help of […]
The link to the story from Palm Beach County is here: Patients express concern over Tenet Health’s potential malpractice Rather than trying to sum it up, allow me to let the story speak for itself. It is one more example of how patients are treated as simple objects or vehicles for the health system to […]
In the end, we all got COVID-19. We were in the first line of fire. But the ones who bore the brunt of the virus were the residents. On April 20, 2020, when I caught it, 63 of the 180 residents at the home had already died. It was total chaos. We were forbidden from referring […]
NEJM: More than two thirds (69%) of the U.S. public has said that reducing health care costs should be a top priority for the president and Congress. A review of 14 national opinion polls elucidates the public’s perspective on the problems and solutions.
Follow Up Interview With Authors of IOM Report: At the intersection of health IT and patient safety: 6 Qs with University Hospitals’ CMIO Dr. Jeffrey Sunshine.
