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Showing posts sorted by date for query medical privacy. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query medical privacy. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Thursday, May 7, 2015

NJ State Bar Association Opposes Workers' Compensation COLA Bill

"The New Jersey State Bar Association respectfully has concerns with S-929 (Sweeney) which concerns certain workers' compensation supplemental benefits. The New Jersey State Bar Association opposes this legislation in order to preserve the “Reverse Offset” provision in New Jersey, visa vie Social Security, which provides for a reduction of the workers' compensation benefit of a worker also receiving disability insurance. Enacting this legislation has the potential of harming the economic integrity of New Jersey’s current cost effective system by allowing for a double recovery of disability benefits and workers’ compensation benefits, which will in turn increase the cost of doing business in New Jersey. A potential alternative that would limit these adverse consequences would be to limit the application of the bill to survivor/death benefits. For the reasons set for above, the New Jersey State Bar Association respectfully opposes this bill."

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Nurse Who Contracted Ebola in the U.S. Sues Her Hospital Employer

The nurse who was the first person to contract Ebola in the United States filed suit on Monday against the Dallas hospital where she worked, saying it knowingly left workers without the training or equipment needed to handle the disease.

The nurse, Nina Pham, 26, was one of two at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who were infected while treating Thomas Eric Duncan, who had the virus when he arrived from the West African country of Liberia.

Ms. Pham’s suit, filed in State District Court in Dallas, accuses the hospital’s parent company, Texas Health Resources, of negligence, fraud and invasion of privacy. Not only did the hospital expose her to a deadly disease, she contends, it also made false statements about her condition and released video of her without her permission.

A Texas Health spokesman, Wendell Watson, said Ms. Pham was “still a member of our team,” and declined to address the specific claims. He added, “We remain optimistic that we can resolve this matter.”

Ms. Pham has been free of Ebola for months, but she has lingering medical and emotional problems, and the long-term consequences remain unclear, said her lawyer, Charla Aldous.

“She still has fatigue and body aches,” and has not been able to return to work, Ms. Aldous said. “She’s been having some liver problems. Her hair started falling out.”

Mr. Duncan went to the hospital’s emergency room on Sept. 25 with fever, nausea and abdominal pain,...


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Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Medical Record Privacy: Does it Really Exist in a Workers' Compensation Claim?

Since before the evolution/promulgation of HIPPA, the nation's workers' compensation system has struggled with issues surrounding medical record privacy and dissemination of data. While establishing an aura of confidentiality, the nation's workers' compensation system has difficulty in maintaining strict medical record privacy.

Excluded from HIPPA, workers' compensation programs exchange huge amounts of medical records in order to efficiently and expeditiously process work related traumatic and occupational exposure claims. The balancing of interests continues to be an evolving process, especially in light of recent mass computer hacking of corporate entities and their employee data.

In a recent social media posting, John Geaney, Esq. defense attorney practicing in  NJ, describes how NJ employers and employee may obtain/exchange/disseminate medical records. Albeit that is only the tip of the medical records corporate iceberg/nightmare, the future remains even more uncertain as computer hacking escalates and national computer security issues become more involved and complicated. The future will even become more complicated as interests of stakeholders are increasingly challenged by technology.


Monday, September 29, 2014

Study: Cancer costs 'skyrocketed' despite drug cuts

Today's post is shared from thehill.com
The cost of treating cancer has "skyrocketed" despite a 2003 law that sought to control Medicare drug costs, including the cost of chemotherapy, according to a new study.
Research published Monday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that oncologists did not stop prescribing expensive cancer drugs even after Medicare cut the drugs' reimbursements in 2005.
In fact, the aggregate cost of cancer care rose by as much as 60 percent between the passage of the law in 2003 and 2013, the study noted.
"Economists expected a sharp decline in use of the most expensive drugs targeted by the [2003] law, because reimbursement to oncologists for these drugs was reduced, but that did not happen," said Mark C. Hornbrook of Kaiser Permanente Northwest, the study’s lead author.
Cutting drug reimbursements is one way federal health officials seek to influence doctors' prescribing habits.
Profit on Medicare reimbursements for chemotherapy drugs is one way cancer clinics generate profit, making the payments ripe for scrutiny by Medicare.
The study looked at 5,831 chemotherapy regimens for 3,613 patients and found the the law lowered prescriptions for affected cancer drugs "slightly" in fee-for-service cancer clinics.
The 2003 law — the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act — is best known for creating Medicare Part D.
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Friday, December 13, 2013

Petition Aims to Build First Federally Funded Mesothelioma Program

Helping asbestos victims may become a Federal effort. Today's post was shared by Linda Reinstein and comes from www.asbestos.com


As the youngest person to become chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt played a major role in U.S. military history -- a war hero whose service spanned World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
It's only appropriate that the Mesothelioma Center for Excellence at the VA West Los Angeles Medical Center is adopting his name.
Zumwalt died from pleural mesothelioma cancer almost 14 years ago, an ending that far too many veterans have suffered, stemming from the once-extensive use of asbestos in the armed forces.
His life was dedicated to those who bravely served their country. Now his memory will be, too.
If the efforts to become the first federally funded mesothelioma program are successful, the Elmo Zumwalt Treatment & Research Center in Los Angeles is expected to blossom and become a premier destination for veterans battling this disease.
"These (veterans) are our heroes. They've given so much of themselves. They deserve the best care we can give them, particularly with this disease," said Clare Cameron, executive director of the nearby Pacific Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. "I think it is so important to take care of them now. They have earned that right."

Help With Petition Signatures

Cameron has been gathering petition signatures supporting efforts by the West Los Angeles VA and the Zumwalt family. She will present the petition early in 2014 to Robert Petzel, M.D., Under Secretary for Health for the U.S....
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Friday, December 6, 2013

Keeping privacy in focus

Confidentiality has been the hallmark of Workers' Compensation since the inception of the program. Has been challenged federally through the portability act concerning the privacy of medical records. All that reach was bad enough, a data breach from and a governmental site is even worse. It is becoming more than obvious, but the weak financial infrastructure, of the patchwork of worker's Compensation systems for the country are creating serious challenges. Instead of attempting to run 50 different programs throughout the country, it is probably A good idea to start looking inward, and establishing a single solid system that can meet the needs required to run A multibillion-dollar benefit system the rep country and also maintain the confidentiality and privacy that the parties participating in it require. Today's post shared from therepublic.com

Hackers gained access to the personal information of about 26,000 Pennsylvanians who use debit cards to receive jobless and workers' compensation benefits, the Pennsylvania Treasury Department said Thursday.
The incident was part of a wider security breach affecting 465,000 holders of JPMorgan Chase & Co. prepaid cash cards nationwide.
The breach affects only cardholders who used the JPMorgan Chase UCard Center website between mid-July and mid-September, the Treasury Department said. Michael Fusco, a spokesman for JPMorgan, said the bank found no evidence any information was used improperly.
JPMorgan first contacted the Pennsylvania Treasury Department on Tuesday, agency spokesman Gary Tuma said.
JPMorgan has referred the matter to law enforcement and would not explain details of how the breach occurred, the Treasury Department said.
The Pennsylvania agency wants details from JPMorgan Chase about the bank's response to the breach, including an explanation for any delay in notifying it and the additional measures it will undertake to protect against a recurrence.
The department said most of the personal information that might have been viewed includes card numbers, dates of birth, user IDs, email addresses. Information on external bank accounts might have been exposed, as well, if a cardholder completed a transaction to it, the department said.
Cardholders are being contacted by letter with instructions and are being urged by JPMorgan Chase in the meantime to...
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Thursday, December 5, 2013

The Road toward Fully Transparent Medical Records

Privacy of medical data in the workers' compensation system does not exist. Federal portability act excluded worker's Compensation claims. In some jurisdictions, claimants are able to seek declaratory relief to shield the records. The processes costly, onerous, and incompatible with the underlining summary and remedial legislative intent of a viable Worker's Compensation program. Today's post was shared by NEJM and comes from www.nejm.org

Perspective
Jan Walker, R.N., M.B.A., Jonathan D. Darer, M.D., M.P.H., Joann G. Elmore, M.D., M.P.H., and Tom Delbanco, M.D.
December 4, 2013DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1310132
Article
Forty years ago, Shenkin and Warner argued that giving patients their medical records “would lead to more appropriate utilization of physicians and a greater ability of patients to participate in their own care.”1 At that time, patients in most states could obtain their records only through litigation, but the rules gradually changed, and in 1996 the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act entitled virtually all patients to obtain their records on request. Today, we're on the verge of eliminating such requests by simply providing patients online access. Thanks in part to federal financial incentives,2 electronic medical records are becoming the rule, accompanied increasingly by password-protected portals that offer patients laboratory, radiology, and pathology results and secure communication with their clinicians by e-mail.
One central component of the records, the notes composed by clinicians, has remained largely hidden from patients. But now OpenNotes, an initiative fueled primarily by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is exploring the effects of providing access to these notes.3 Beginning in 2010, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (which serves urban and suburban Boston), Geisinger Health System (in rural Pennsylvania), and Harborview Medical Center (Seattle's...
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ADAO Resource: How To Find a Doctor or Treatment Facility Specializing in Mesothelioma and Asbestos-Related Diseases

Seeking information about medical treatment concerning mesothelioma? The information made available by the ADAO makes the process less difficult, Especially during challenging moments.Today's post was shared by Linda Reinstein and comes from www.asbestosdiseaseawareness.org

Posted on December 4, 2013*Note: From the very founding of our organization, ADAO has abstained from providing any medical or legal referrals. ADAO remains an independent organization that is not influenced by outside sources, such as drug companies, law firms, or companies that manufacture or use asbestos.

Many of us can think back to the heartbreaking time when we first heard the news that a loved one had an asbestos-caused disease. “Mesothelioma – can’t pronounce it, can’t cure it,” was my devastated, personal reaction. It took me many weeks to even begin to understand the diagnosis my husband had received and find the very limited treatment options available to him.

My learning curve was steep and Alan was diagnosed before the advancement of the smart phone.

Navigating the health care system maze is complex – but it shouldn’t be. The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) is committed to replacing those feelings of fear, loneliness and confusion with the knowledge that there are others who share your experience and want to support you.

We want you to have easy access to information about medical resources for asbestos-caused diseases. The National Cancer Institute has an excellent page, in English and Spanish, to answer your questions on “How To Find a Doctor or Treatment Facility...
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Friday, November 22, 2013

Overlooked Lymph Nodes in Rib Cage Have Prognostic Power for Mesothelioma Patients

A potential tool to diagnosis and treatment mesothelioma has been reported.

For the first time, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have shown the predictive power of a group of overlooked lymph nodes--known as the posterior intercostal lymph nodes--that could serve as a better tool to stage and ultimately treat patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.

The findings were presented October 28 at the 15th World Conference on Lung Cancer.
Physicians look to lymph nodes to stage essentially all cancers, including mesothelioma. The presence or absence of metastatic cancer cells in lymph nodes affects prognosis and also typically dictates the optimal treatment strategy. But posterior intercostal lymph nodes, which are located between the ribs near the spine, have not been previously used to stage or guide treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma or any other cancer.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Your prescription history is their business

Drug history
Think you can keep a medical condition secret from life insurers by paying cash for prescription meds? Think again.

A for-profit service called ScriptCheck exists to rat you out regardless of how diligent you are in trying to keep a sensitive matter under wraps.
ScriptCheck, offered by ExamOne, a subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics, is yet another example of data mining — using sophisticated programs to scour databases in search of people's personal information and then selling that info to interested parties.

To be sure, life insurers have a need to know as much as possible about the people they cover. This helps mitigate risk and potentially keep rates affordable for everyone.

But for anyone who is taking an antidepressant, say, or being treated for a chronic condition, privacy can be a key consideration. You may not want employers — or potential employers — to know what you're taking. By the same token, you may not want to risk a potentially sharp increase in insurance premiums.

"It's a tough issue," said David Bryant, a Los Angeles life and health insurance broker. "From the consumer's perspective, you may want to keep certain things under wraps. But when you buy a policy, an insurer will want to pull all information about you."

And thanks to ScriptCheck, the insurer doesn't have to give things a second thought. By purchasing this or a similar service, the insurer can be notified of all prescriptions you've filled in recent years, regardless of how...
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Thursday, September 19, 2013

What is the Date Last Insured, and Why Does it Matter?

Today's post comes from guest author Susan C. Andrews, from Causey Law Firm.

A person who has been out of the labor market for quite some time before he applies for Social Security Disability (SSD) may find that his application for benefits is rejected because he cannot prove he became disabled before his date last insured.  

In order to qualify for benefits in the first place, a person must pay Social Security taxes long enough to have insured status. When the individual stops working and therefore stops paying into the system, eventually he will hit his date last insured and lose his insured status. It is a little like a private insurance policy: when you stop paying the premiums, you no longer are covered by the policy.  For a person who has work steadily in his lifetime, the date last insured is arrived at and insured status lapses about five years after stopping work.
 The Social Security Administration has another program for the medically disabled called Supplemental Security Income (SSI) where there is no date last insured rule, but there are other program requirements and limitations. In a future article, we will explore the differences between the Social Security Disability (SSD) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs.   
     As an example of how the date last insured issue can prevent a person from getting Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits, consider the case of a 35 year-old woman who has worked steadily since her late teens. She and her husband have twins when she is in her mid-30s. There are a lot of late night feedings and diapers to change! She stays home to take care of the twins while her husband continues to work to support the family. When the twins turn five, she begins to think about returning to work, perhaps when they go into first grade a year or so later. Five years has passed, and she reaches her date last insured. She loses her insured status and has not yet returned to work. When the twins turn six, she gears up her job search, but has not yet re-entered the labor market. Then medical catastrophe strikes: she has a very disabling stroke – unusual in a person this young, but not unheard of. She clearly cannot work. She applies for Social Security Disability and is turned down because she did not become disabled before her date last insured. Unlike the Social Security Retirement program, where it is possible to collect Social Security Retirement (SSR) benefits on the earnings record of one’s spouse, the Social Security Disability program only allows for benefits to be paid on the basis of one’s own earnings record.

     Consider another scenario with this family of four. When the twins are three, mom is diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. This condition can progress slowly or more quickly. In her case, she suffers a fairly quick progression of symptoms. By the time the twins are six and going into first grade, she is ready to return to work, except that she is suffering a variety of MS symptoms, including the profound fatigue that is experienced by many with this disease. Her combination of symptoms prevents her from working, so she applies for Social Security Disability. She passed her date last insured when the twins turned five. Will she get benefits? That depends. She certainly can apply for benefits after her date last insured, but she must be able to show that her symptoms had become sufficiently severe to prevent her from working before her date last insured. We have handled many cases where the individual is out past his or her date last insured. The key is to obtain all of the medical records that help to document the seriousness of the medical condition before that date last insured. Sometimes these can be buttressed with statements from family members or close friends who were in a position to observe at close range how seriously the person’s medical condition was affecting her functioning prior to the date last insured. In the case above, a statement from the husband likely would be helpful.

     The Social Security Administration has another program for the medically disabled called Supplemental Security Income (SSI) where there is no date last insured rule, but there are other program requirements and limitations. In a future article, we will explore the differences between the Social Security Disability (SSD) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. 

Photo credit: Јerry / Foter.com / CC BY

Monday, September 2, 2013

Media Portrays Social Security as an Avenue to Benefits for the Unemployed - WRONG! It's Not That Simple...

The Social Security Administration turns down many worthy applicants when they first apply.
Photo credit: Thomas Hawk / Foter.com 
Today's post comes from guest author Susan C. Andrews, from Causey Law Firm.

There is a lot in the news these days about the Social Security Disability Program, with some pundits suggesting people are getting on benefits simply because they are unemployed, or because they claim to be injured or ill when in fact they are able-bodied and fully capable of working. Every day, all day, I work with people filing for Social Security Disability benefits. 

So I work with the program’s rules - yes, there are rules for deciding these cases – it is not enough just to claim to be disabled. And I come face to face with individuals who are struggling, sometimes with a major health issue such as cancer, or rheumatoid arthritis, or Multiple Sclerosis

Other folks have multiple health problems that have combined to force them from the labor market. All of them have medical records, often reams of them, documenting diagnoses, chronicling surgeries and other treatment regimens. This is one big thing I think the general public does not know: a person must have one or more diagnoses from a qualified physician that could account for the symptoms and limitations he or she is reporting to Social Security. 

Monday, August 12, 2013

3 Responses for “What the Recent Data Breach Says About the State of Health IT”

The privacy of medical records is an essential component of the workers' compensation system. As the use of electronic records becomes more commonplace the need to maintain the records in a secure format becomes increasingly critical.  Today's post was shared by The Health Care Blog and comes from thehealthcareblog.com By David Do, MD

Earlier this month officials at Oregon Health Sciences University discovered that residents in several departments were storing patient information on Google Drive, and had been doing so for the past two years. Given They treated this discovery as a breach of privacy and notified 3000 patients about the incident.

While I don’t condone the storage of patient information on unapproved services like Gmail or Google Drive, this incident pretty much highlights the sorry state of information systems within the hospital and the unfulfilled need by physicians for tools that facilitate workflow and patient care.

It says something that the Oregon residents felt compelled to take such a drastic action. I don’t know what punishment – if any – those responsible were given by administrators for their “crimes.” I’ll leave it to readers to make up their own minds about the wisdom of the unauthorized workaround and the appropriateness of any punishment. But I do know that the message the incident sends is a very clear one.

We’re screwing this up. There is really no earthly reason why it should be any more difficult to share a patient record than it is to share a Word doc, a Powerpoint or yes, even a cloud-based Google Drive spreadsheet.

Why the Breach Happened
What’s going on here? Let’s say I admit a patient to the hospital.  Our friend was hospitalized here just last month, and like many patients, he has dementia...

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Sunday, July 28, 2013

The Oklahoma Opt-Out System is Bad Medicine for an Ill System

The newly enacted Oklahoma "Opt-Out" workers' compensation system has been urged by reformers as an effort to provide a more efficient and effective than its century old program enacted in the early 1900s. A comparison of the Oklahoma Opt-Out system to the New Jersey system reflects a limitation on litigation and a return to a more administrative program. Additionally, the opt-out system would provide for injured workers' choice of physician that ultimately could be blended into an employer based health program.

The changes are dramatic, and a major shift from the traditional based system such as New Jersey has followed since 1911.

Obviously the future statics will be reviewed by all stakeholders to determine if the Opt-Out System can really satisfy the concerns of all stakeholders or just a few.

Radical statutory changes to workers' compensation that have been limited to the interests of specific interest groups in the past have been met with disasters. The Opt-Out System of Oklahoma appears to be one of those programs, and has been bitterly contested by the advocates of injured workers.

In order for the creation of an optimal system of compensation to meet the socio-political-economic changes that are occurring in the world, all parties must sit at the table and work out a plan together. The Oklahoma Opt-Out system just appears to be bad medicine for a very ill system.

New Jersey Traditional v Oklahoma Opt-Out
Hearing Officials
The Jersey System:
Case are heard by Compensation Judges nominated by the Governor and the system is administered under the Executive Branch of government. There are 50 Compensation Judges.

The Oklahoma Opt-Out System:
Starting on February 1, an administrative process with three appointed commissioners will replace the current court procedure with 10 judges for litigating workers’ compensation claims.

Temporary Disability Benefits
The Jersey System:
If an injured worker is disabled for a period of more than seven days, he or she will be eligible to receive temporary total benefits at a rate of 70% their average weekly wage, not to exceed 75% of the Statewide Average Weekly Wage (SAWW) or fall below the minimum rate of 20% of the SAWW. These benefits are provided during the period when a worker is unable to work and is under active medical care.The limit is 450 weeks. The maximum temporary disability rate for 2013 is $826.00.

The Oklahoma Opt-Out System:
Temporary disability payments will be reduced to 104 weeks instead of 156 weeks, with a cap at 70 percent of the state’s average weekly wage, about $540 per week.

Permanent Disability Benefits:
The Jersey System:
Partial Disability: When a job related injury or illness results in a partial permanent disability, benefits are based upon a percentage of certain "scheduled" or "non-scheduled" losses. A "scheduled" loss is one involving arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet, toes, eyes, ears or teeth. A "non-scheduled" loss is one involving any area or system of the body not specifically identified in the schedule, such as the back, the heart, the lungs. These benefits are paid weekly and are due after the date temporary disability ends.

Total Permanent Disability:
These weekly benefits are provided initially for a period of 450 weeks. These benefits continue beyond the initial 450 weeks provided that the injured worker is able to show that he or she remains unable to earn wages.

Wages earned after 450 weeks offset the weekly computation in proportion to the income at the time of the injury. Permanent Total benefits are paid weekly and are based upon 70% of the average weekly wage, not to exceed 75% of the Statewide Average Weekly Wage (SAWW) or fall below the minimum rate of 20% of the SAWW.

Permanent Total Disability is also presumed when the worker has lost two major members or a combination of members of the body such as eyes, arms, hands, legs or feet. However, permanent total disability can also result from a combination of injuries that render the worker unemployable.

The Oklahoma Opt-Out System:
Permanent disability payments will be reduced from 520 weeks to 350 weeks.

Choice of Treating Physician
The Jersey System:
None. Employer selected physician must be utilized.

The Oklahoma Opt-Out System:
Employees will be allowed to change treating physicians once so long as the selection is from a list of three doctors provided by the employer.

Arbitration or Alternate Dispute Resolution
The Jersey System: 
None. All cases, including settlements, must be heard or reviewed by a Compensation Judge.

The Oklahoma Opt-Out System:
Employers can require arbitration as the exclusive way to settle claims and disputes with employees.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Shifting the Blame: Doctors Look To Others To Play Biggest Role In Curbing Health Costs

Blame for increased medical costs is getting tossed around like a political football. Those deeply entrenched into the system are pointing their finger at "the other" party to shift responsibility. This reminds one of when CMS in 1980 urged the passage of the Medical Secondary Payer Act. 

As this process continues, ultimately the US Government will be the final authority as Medicare ultimately rules the medical billing field and outcome based medicine seems to be the new goal.

Workers' Compensation system will ultimate adapt or be subsumed by the Medicare protocols in one fashion or another.  Special interests  will have little opportunity to cut out their specialized markets.

Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org

In a study, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Mayo Clinic researchers surveyed more than 2,500 doctors to assess their views of different approaches to rein in the nation’s health care costs. The doctors were randomly selected from an American Medical Association database.
When it comes to controlling the country’s health care costs, doctors point their fingers at lawyers, insurance companies, drug makers and hospitals. But well over half acknowledge they have at least some responsibility as stewards of health care resources.

Based on their findings, 59 percent of doctors believed they have some responsibility in holding down  health care costs. Only 36 percent thought they have a major role.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Hospitals May Soon Be Reaching For The Stars

Should injured workers have the opportunity to select the "best rated" medical provider? The Federal government is looking forward to providing outcome base rating information. The workers' compensation system should utilize that information and allow injured workers to be able make an educated choice in seeking medical care. Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from www.kaiserhealthnews.org

Star wars may be coming to a hospital near you.

Medicare is considering assigning stars or some other easily understood symbol to hospitals so patients can more easily compare the quality of care at various institutions. The ratings would appear on Medicare’s Hospital Compare website and be based on many of the 100 quality measures the agency already publishes.

The proposal comes as Medicare confronts a paradox: Although the number of ways to measure hospital performance is increasing, those factors are becoming harder for patients to digest. Hospital Compare publishes a wide variety of details about medical centers, including death rates, patient views about how well doctors communicated, infection rates for colon surgery and hysterectomies, emergency room efficiency and overuse of CT scans.

In its proposed rules for hospitals in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services asked for ideas about "how we may better display this information on the Hospital Compare Web site. One option we have considered is aggregating measures in a graphical display, such as star ratings."

Private groups such as Consumer Reports, the Leapfrog Group and US News and World Report already issue hospital guides that boil down the disparate Medicare scores -- along with their own proprietary formulas -- to come up with numeric scores, letter grades or rankings.

But even before it's formally proposed, the possibility of the government rating...

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...
For over 3 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

Read more about "medical treatment" and workers' compensation:
Apr 15, 2013
The main difference is in Nebraska, as long as the worker elects a prior treating doctor to treat their injury (for example, the worker's family doctor), that doctor can dictate the medical care and refer them to others for treatment.
May 18, 2013
While workers' compensation insurance carriers may set approved fees or contract with providers, hospitals have huge disparities in the cost for medical care provided. Additionally, there appears to be no difference in the ...
Nov 16, 2012
New York Worker's Compensation Board's proposed new medical treatment guidelines that will modify 2010 previously implemented. Adopt the new carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) medical treatment guidelines (MTG) as the ...
Jul 03, 2013
Read more about The Affordable Health Care Act: Workers' Compensation: Protecting Healthcare Workers. May 06, 2013. Kerri A. Thom, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of ...

Friday, July 19, 2013

Privacy: Workers' Compensation Health Data Heading for Electronic Storage

Medical records are a significant aspect of workers' compensation claims and storing them is a significant issue. As claims are filed and litigation is pursed, medical records become critical evidence in evaluation claims and adjudicating decisions.

With the explosion of electronic medical records mandated by The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, the secure storage. retrieval and dissemination of medical records has become a challenge. Even though The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1999 (HIPPA) mandates a privacy exclusion for workers' compensation claims, the medical records must remain protected and secure to maintain integretary and avoid unlawful access.

Missing from the equation are regulations from workers' compensation agencies to provide for the security and integrity of the records that have been widely disseminated within the workers' compensation system.

One company has has built a "Bunker" for health records.