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 allows its doctors to instantly reject a claim on medical grounds without opening the patient file, leaving people with unexpected bills, according to corporate documents and interviews with former Cigna officials.

Here’s the link:

How Cigna Saves Millions by Having Its Doctors Reject Claims Without Reading Them

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It is not permissible for MAs to perform tasks that constitute the practice of medicine or require the skill and knowledge of physicians or other licensed providers. Balasa noted physicians or administrators may believe if a physician thinks the MA is competent at a task, then the task may be delegated, but that is not correct legally. If the task requires the skill and knowledge of a licensed provider, it cannot be delegated to an MA.

Here’s the link to the story in Medical Economics.

MGMA 2022: What duties can medical assistants take on? Some principles for delegating

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Healthcare is fully embracing the concept of consumerism, and with that comes the need for consumer and patient satisfaction—and reliable ways to measure that experience. Enter HCAHPS, or the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems.

Here is the link:

What Are HCAHPS Scores, Why Are They Important to Patient Satisfaction?

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Here’s a link to a BMJ article on it.

With consent, medical students get to observe most surgical procedures, but we aren’t encouraged to observe complex ethical situations. We should be.

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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 more about my experience handling nursing home falls and other patient rights cases using the link below.

My Nursing Home Abuse Litigation Experience

The post Every second, an older person in the United States falls and injures themselves, and every 20 minutes one of them dies from the fall. appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

Like anything, a medical record review is something you learn over time. To get really good at it, you need exposure to all manner and types of cases that force you deep down in every part of the chart. Reading lab results is different from reading nursing notes which are different from the radiology reports. It takes years of this kind of exposure to develop the necessary skill.

In legal terms, discovery is “the compulsory disclosure, by a party to an action, of relevant documents referred to by the other party.” But receiving a disclosure is different from knowing and understanding it. Discovering what is in your discovery is an acquired skill.

Here is a link to a case we litigated to the Supreme Court of Florida that solidified patient rights to evidence of medical errors from Hospitals.

Charles v. Baptist: A Discovery Victory for Patient Safety

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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 profit.

Mary’s and Good Samaritan Medical Center, hospitals under the umbrella of Tenet Health, have been afflicted with relentless interruption to their telephone service and intersystem data access, according to patients who notified WPTV.

Concern for potential malpractice has been growing as patients have been reporting that doctors and nurses must leave the buildings in order to use their network devices. Basically, their cell phones and tablets don’t work inside the hospital.

A patient, who spoke with WPTV, expressed his concern saying, “They could screw up and give me the wrong medication or something,”

According to HIPPA law (Health Insurance and Portability Act), medication that was intended for one patient and given to another, could be considered a malpractice case.

On Saturday afternoon, a representative for Tenet Health spoke with News Channel 5 and she stated, “We are experiencing network issues in certain systems. We are in the process of bringing those systems back up with strong protocols in place so that care continues without interruption. We are grateful to our physicians and staff for continuing to provide quality care as we work to resolve this matter.”

When questioned more specifically about these technical difficulties, the representative declined to comment on whether or not patient data had been compromised.

The post Florida Tenet officials say that the systems “are coming back and patient worries are preposterous.” appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

While this happened in Spain (link to the story here), we all saw similar stories here in the US: family members touching windows when lucky enough to do so as a substitute for visiting parents and grandparents.

The injuries or complications caused by medical error are increased in the elderly population, who are often vulnerable due to illness and have long lengths of stay. Congress found that between January 1999 and January 2001 more than thirty percent of nursing homes in the United States – 5,283 nursing homes – were cited for an abuse violation that had the potential to create harm.

Click here to learn more about my experience in nursing home cases and call or send me a message from the website if you have any questions.

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