By Robert Morton, CPHRM, CPPS, Assistant Vice President, Department of Patient Safety and Risk Management, The Doctors Company True informed consent is a process of managing a patient’s expectations; it is not just a signature on a document. Achieving an accurate diagnosis requires the patient to provide accurate information to the physician. The physician must ... Continue Reading
Breast Density Notification Law Info for Medical Professionals
By Lynn Baxter, MD
A new law takes effect in Georgia on July 1, 2019 requiring facilities that perform mammography to add specific verbiage to lay-language results letters for patients with dense breast tissue. This verbiage will alert patients that they have dense breast tissue, which, while not abnormal, may mask cancers on mammography and may also increase the risk of breast cancer. It will ... Continue Reading
Transcarotid Artery Revascularization (TCAR): Reversing Flow to Move Carotid Surgery Forward
By Siddharth Patel, MD, Northside Hospital
Stroke continues to plague this country with nearly 800,000 new cases yearly. The vast majority are ischemic, but more importantly, potentially preventable. Carotid occlusive disease, often silent until it is too late, represents a significant source of emboli in ischemic strokes. Appropriate screening with carotid duplex ultrasonography can identify at risk populations. ... Continue Reading
When Should I Consider a Cervical Disc Replacement Instead of a Fusion?
By Keith Osborn, M.D. Spine Program at Northside Hospital Orthopedic Institute, Atlanta, Georgia
Since first being described in 1955 by Robinson and Smith at Johns Hopkins Hospital, the anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) has remained the gold standard for treatment of cervical disc disease with radiculopathy. Like most surgical treatments, however, there are problems that can occur as a result of surgery. Some of these, like loss of movement, are easily ... Continue Reading
EMTALA: What On-call Physicians Need to Know
By Karen Civali
In 1986, Congress enacted the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA) to ensure public access to emergency services regardless of ability to pay. Section 1867 of the Social Security Act imposes specific obligations on Medicare-participating hospitals that offer emergency services to provide a medical screening examination (MSE) when a request is made for ... Continue Reading
A Trap for the Unwary
What You Need to Know Before Billing Services Furnished by One Provider under another Provider's NPI By Emma Cecil, JD Senior Regulatory Attorney, The Institute at MagMutual An Oklahoma physician agreed in August 2017 to pay the government $580,000 to resolve allegations that he violated the False Claims Act ("FCA") by causing false claims to be submitted to Medicare for ... Continue Reading
