When a nonprofit discusses conflicts of interest, it usually focuses on the financial benefit a board member could receive that could also be detrimental to the nonprofit. While some examples of conflicts of interest are cut and dried, such as hiring an unqualified family member of one of the board members at a salary that…
It’s like a mushroom cloud of expanding worry and concerns. When it comes to data protection (that is, the firmly locked up and safely secured proprietary information regarding patients, billing and other confidential information that so centrally marks the medical industry), medical organizations in the United States are behind the ball. And that state of…
Commentators from across a broad gamut of the American medical industry sometimes note the collective view of actors within that realm that their chosen field — medical care and delivery — is under siege. Candidly, it is not hard to see why that opinion prevails. For starters, and as we point out on a relevant…
Imagine that you — like virtually all your peers — are a participant within the sprawling American medical industry who merely seeks to go about your job on a daily basis in a conscientious and ethical manner. You could be a doctor. Alternatively, you might be a nurse, pharmacist, administrator, coding specialist, insurance consultant, billing…
It hardly equates to a news event these days to note that health care costs are a material concern to scores of millions of people across the country, including high numbers of New York residents. Indeed, polls, surveys, hard empirical evidence, anecdotal musings and virtually all other information sources indicate that care-cost concerns are an…
In our previous post, we started discussing how complaints alleging misconduct by licensed physicians are managed by the New York State Health Department’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct and the Board of Professional Medical Conduct. Our reason in doing this was to help physicians, who have invested so much time, money and energy into not…
Those people who make the decision to become a physician know from the outset that it won’t be an easy endeavor, as the process requires a substantial investment of time, money and energy. Nevertheless, all this hard work ultimately pays off once they have their medical license, as they are free to start caring for…
Regulators who administer and police medical payment programs (most centrally, Medicare) often — in fact, routinely — speak of the great challenges they confront in identifying and preventing provider-related fraud, as well as punishing transgressors who engage in fraudulent billings and other unlawful activities. Often, their complaints and diatribes target the sheer size of government…
Unquestionably, we live in an age of cutting-edge and quickly evolving technologies, with that reality transforming life in fundamental ways. The medical industry is hardly immune from technology’s seismic effects, of course. On the plus side, astonishing advances in medical tools and equipment have revolutionized operating rooms and treatment therapies. On the down side, though…
Some select industries are just different. Like sumo wrestling, aerial acrobatics and space exploration. And, to be sure, the health care industry. Indeed, perhaps no other realm of focus and professional endeavor is so clearly singular and distinct as the medical field. And for good reason. The industry is marked by specialized and highly trained…