The first fine imposed for a breach of electronic protected health information (PHI) affecting fewer than 500 individuals has been levied by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS).
Word of mouth has always been a highly effective form of advertisement, and social media has increased its effectiveness exponentially. This is great news if the word is good, but what if the word is bad? Before the Internet, a dissatisfied patient might have voiced his opinion of you to just a few people. Today, one dissatisfied patient can spread the word to millions in a matter of seconds. Justified or not, should you rebuke a defamatory statement about you posted online?
Based on past experience, many will tell you it's best not to do anything, or suffer the "me thinks he doth protest too much" syndrome, more recently coined the "Streisand Effect" after singer Barbara Streisand tried to have a photo of her home—one among thousands of pictures that were part of an online display showing coastline erosion in California—deleted from that site. The result was much unwanted publicity, far more than what Streisand would've received had she kept silent.
Unconventional legal claims are taking physicians, their practices, and facilities by surprise, according to the American Medical Association’s (AMA) American Medical News. The publication says in a copyrighted article the unconventional clams they don’t anticipate pose some of the greatest legal dangers.
The American Medical Association (AMA) reports that while a majority of medical liability insurance premiums held steady or fell in 2012, insurers worry about the future and warn the current rates may not be supportable.
In a copyrighted article in American Medical News writer Carolyne Krupa says that nearly 60% of premiums nationwide held steady in 2012, and about 26% decreased, according to the Medical Liability Monitor Annual Rate Survey. Only 15% of premiums increased. Overall, rates fell 1.7% in 2012. In the previous two years, they dipped 0.5% and 0.2%, respectively, the October report said. The result is a continuing “softening” of the medical liability insurance market in the last several years, characterized by declining rates and low returns on investment for insurers.