I am affiliated with the healthcare industry, and will like to shed light on it. Every day we hear countless heart-breaking stories of healthcare fraud, which shock and demoralize their readers, generating a sense of profound pessimism in them: A pharmacist bilked the state Medicaid program out of $7.7 million by billing for drugs his patients never got. A physical therapist defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of more than $1 million by causing those programs to be billed for expensive nerve conduction studies and needle electromyography tests that he did not perform. He was also laundering the proceeds of his fraud scheme in order to avoid taxes. An owner of a nationwide supplier of durable medical equipment pleaded guilty to two counts of healthcare fraud and one count each of money laundering and the introduction of an adulterated and misbranded medical device into interstate commerce. He admitted to waiving copayments for all Medicare patients, a practice which is prohibited by Medicare. By waiving copayments they otherwise would be responsible for, he induced beneficiaries to accept products they had not ordered and not report the alleged fraudulent billing to Medicare. Healthcare fraud usually takes five different forms (false statements or claims; elaborate schemes; cover-up strategies; misrepresentations of value; and misrepresentations of service) and each particular situation might involve more than one form.
In spite of the above-mentioned isolated incidences, I think the Hippocratic Oath taken by the medical profession is still not completely lost in the new world of medicine and new terminology. Healthcare industry can substantially benefit by closely following the code of ethics; especially, if its members fully know their purpose and values, and the impact of business they do in their everyday lives. They must understand the sensitivity of relationship between their organization and the community they serve. Every stakeholder in a healthcare enterprise should have their rights to be protected. The President’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Healthcare Industry drafted a Consumer Bill of Rights and Responsibilities in 1998 in which it noted several main principles for protecting healthcare consumers. It has played a crucial role in promoting ethical behavior in the healthcare industry. It states that consumers have a right to receive information in a timely fashion and an easily understood way; a right to a choice of healthcare providers to ensure appropriate high-quality healthcare; a right to be involved in the decision-making process; a right to receive a considerate, respectful healthcare from all members of the healthcare system at all times and under all circumstances; a right to communicate with healthcare providers confidentially and to have their individually identifiable healthcare information protected; and the last but not least, a right to complaints and appeals.
The implementation and reinforcement of the old code of ethics (integrity, veracity, fairness, human dignity, participation, commitment, social responsibility, common good, subsidiarity, and love) is only possible by compliance with laws, protecting confidentiality, properly dealing with conflicts of interest, protecting and avoiding misuse of assets, always having fair dealings, reporting illegal activities, providing equal opportunities to all, and accountability. I opine that there still a lot needs to be done in the healthcare industry to improve its credibility. This can be done through the act of Congress, and the efforts of the whole healthcare team to put the best interests of their patients first. Whole staff of a healthcare organization must appreciate the full dimensions of ethical problems. Only this understanding should affect how the ethical standards of that organization are set. The governance of hospital ethics and ethics committees deal with the problem of ethical disagreement or uncertainty in modern hospitals. Hospital ethics has three important implications, which encourage the hospitals to take more control of their ethics and thus to resist the efforts of outside forces to determine their ethical fate. First, healthcare organizations should establish and enforce more explicit institutional confidentiality standards that serve the interests of patients, doctors, staff, and the whole of the institution alike. Second, the traditional dual-role concept of medical ethics is very simple. Healthcare enterprises should encourage their staff to develop the ability to see, and at appropriate times to act upon, the perspectives of both individual patients and institutional needs. Third, these enterprises should establish strong ethics committees with a broad mandate to help develop standards and policies in these and related areas. These enterprises should find a way to institutionalize ethical discussions to prevent spilling out of their internal conflicts into the community. They are better prepared to resist intrusions of external forces if they sustain a robust forum to raise and resolve ethical issues, and can direct external influences to achieve constructive results.

References: http://www.nydailynews.com/ Restoring Responsibility Ethics in Government, Business, and Heathcare-Dennis F. Thompson (Cambridge University Press)-2004
Healthcare Fraud Auditing and Detection Guide-1ED-Rebecca S Busch (John Wiley & Sons)-2007