...Stephanie Sauceda HCS/545 March 17, 2014 Mary Cummings Health Law and Regulations Health care in the United States has changed over the years and the federal government saw need to establish regulatory agencies such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to ensure the elderly, disabled and low income receive quality and cost-effective health care. As a result of health care costs sharply increasing, the government determined it needed to have oversight on the health care industry and pushed for the establishment of managed care organizations (MCO). CMS enforces the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA); this act was created to ensure health care organizations provide a minimum of a medical screening exam to determine if complaint is emergent or not. Most importantly for EMTALA is the obligation to treat emergent cases regardless of the patient’s ability to pay for services. In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was approved by the United States Congress to regulate the use of and protect patient health records and the Department of Health & Human Services oversees the compliance and violations of HIPAA (Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.). The intentions of many of these regulatory agencies is to oversee that the health care industry is providing quality, affordable health care and treating patients with fairness and privacy. In 2008, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)...
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...Ethel Carew 12/28/14 EMTALA Question #1 To help determine whether EMTALA was violated in this scenario, we need to answer the following questions: • Was the patient stabilized? • Was the patient stable for transfer? • Was the patient’s transfer done in an appropriate manner? • When did the EMTALA obligation end? Was the patient stabilized after treatment for the EMC? In this scenario the Hospital personnel had fulfilled their obligation of stabilizing the patient and the patient remained in the hospital for a whole day. The patent at this point is now in an ‘in-patient’ status. No further EMTALA obligations should exist for the hospital if an identified emergency medical condition has been stabilized or if the patient in question is considered...
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...care. However, a hospital’s failure to follow its own rules, regulations, and policies is evidence of negligence. 3. Discharge instructions can be construed to be part of a hospital’s rules, regulations and policies. 4. Unclear, or ambiguous discharge instructions can place the hospital at risk for increased liability for negligence if a casual connection can be made to a patient’s injury. Therefore, to protect itself, hospitals should be proactive in establishing clear discharge protocols and individualized discharge instructions. IV. Review of the Law In the case of Earline Therry, et al v. State of Louisiana, through the Department of Health and Hospitals and University Medical Center of Lafayette, Louisiana, a summary judgment was granted for the defendants based upon the plaintiff’s inability to establish a causal connection between a breach of the standard of care and any resultant injuries. In this case, Mrs. Therry accused the Defendants of negligence for allowing her to develop digitalis toxicity due to a one-day delay in returning to the hospital. Mrs. Therry’s discharge instructions stated to return to the emergency room if she had any problems. Mrs. Therry was discharged on two diuretics, possibly causing dehydration, which as one medical panel review board member concluded, could be a possible cause of the...
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...HCS/490- Health care Consumer- Trends and Marketing Thomas Kehoe, Instructor July 12, 2010 Demographic Paper In the following, the author was designated by the senior management team at a community hospital to write a summary on the effects of changes in population demographics on the needs and services for a selected population. The author must identify the population on which the case study will focus on the aging population, patients with a particular chronic disease, children, patients with AIDS, patients requiring long-term care, or emergency management. The author must identify the targeted population, gather data about the population demographics, and describe the general impact that changing demographics may have on the health care market. The author will discuss why and how the changes in demographics will affect health care. Two health care related challenges identified for the population is chosen. The author will also describe how a chronic disease wellness program may affect the costs for this demographic. In conclusion, the author will discuss the marketing needs or services needed for this population as well as how the chosen population can address these challenges. The population demographics that the author has chosen to write a summary on is the influence of illegal immigrations on emergency health care. Immigration reform is one of the most forming or expressing division or issues opposing the United States policymakers. The increase in the number of illegal...
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...research paper will address the seriousness of this issue. Illegal immigration has a negative impact on the United States in many ways. Immigrants have entered our country illegally and stolen millions of jobs, crippled a struggling education system, manipulated welfare programs, and drastically raised crime rates. Without immigration reform, the crippling effects of illegal immigrants will break this country. With illegal immigrants willing to work for less pay and in poor work conditions, they negatively impact employment rates. Illegal-immigration has a negative impact on the available jobs for U.S. citizens. People often protest that the illegal immigrants do the jobs that Americans don’t want to do. However, that is not the case. They are able to work for low wages and in poor conditions, where citizens must follow minimum wage and labor laws. The more employers use illegal immigrants for cheap labor, the overall wage goes down. As Adam Davidson stated, “When wages go down, American workers are harmed. And when American workers are harmed, the poor are always the first hit.” (Davidson, 2006) Almost 350,000 immigrants sneak into the United States illegally each year and seek out employment. This causes wages and...
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...Wee-Care Urgent Medical Website Plan 1909 Oak Bluff Trail Austell, Georgia 30122 770-942-3199 weecare.com Monifa Mwangi January 4, 2011 Executive Summary One of the top complaints of individuals seeking non-critical emergency services is wait time. For emergency room visits, a patient may spend 2-3 hours in an emergency waiting room for non-critical treatment such as fever, cough, sprains, etc. Quick2treat is an online concept developed to allow consumers access to WeeCare’s current office wait times and allows the patient to schedule an appointment, or hold their place in line for urgent care treatment. Once the patient has confirmed the appointment time, the patient is guaranteed to be seen within 15 minutes upon arrival. Internet registration for non-life threatening emergency department services that allows patient and family to avoid dreaded time in a waiting room. The concept of Quick2treat follows current technology for real-time online status reporting used by the airport industry, amusement parks “fast pass” system and online reservation services in restaurants. The market indicates that there is a significant need for quality “urgent” care other then emergency services provided by area hospital’s emergency rooms. Currently, the clinic employs competent, well-educated physicians and support staff to respond to the current needs of patients, however, there is room for growth. WeeCare has developed an excellent reputation with many of patients, through...
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...Chain Competitive Disadvantages Relative to Weaknesses Appendix O: Strategic Implications of Strengths and Weaknesses References Decision Analysis Decision Analysis Appendices Appendix P: Directional Strategies Appendix Q: Adaptive Strategies Appendix R: Market Entry Strategies Appendix S: Strategic Positioning Appendix T: Value-Chain Funcations References 1 2-11 12-13 14-17 18-29 30-36 37-50 51-60 61-66 67 I-VII 68-74 75-81 82-86 87-91 92-95 96-105 VIII-XV 106-109 110-122 123-125 126-128 129-135 136 Issue Statement Emanuel Medical Center (EMC) is encountering tremendous financial troubles as it struggles to remain open as an independent general acute care hospital. Changes in federal regulations such as the implementation of the EMTALA laws and lower reimbursement rates for federally run insurance programs, changes in service area demographics, and the evolution of the services that locally competing hospitals offer, all have contributed to five consecutive negative operating margins for Emanuel Medical Center. Emanuel Medical Center’s poor infrastructure and inability to adapt to these changes has left the...
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