November 2009 Newsletter
Welcome to the November issue of the Indidge Advantage newsletter.
Recently, it is not only the weather that is getting cooler, the honeymoon between the insurance industry and the Obama administration is decidedly cooler as well.
Besides the changes in the Obama administration, changes are also being discussed for tort reform and are occurring in hospital finances and in privacy laws that you should know about. These are all topics covered in our newsletter this month.
Happy Thanksgiving!
The Indidge Advantage is produced by Indidge Systems, a healthcare
software solutions company specializing in Compliance and Risk Management solutions.
Three Alternatives to Achieve Tort Reform
by Cheryl Clark
To a muffled rumble of boos from some American Medical Association members in June, President Barack Obama quashed doctors' hopes he would support a national cap on medical malpractice awards.
Caps, he said, "can be unfair to people who've been wrongfully harmed."
But might there be other palatable alternatives to achieve tort reform, mechanisms that would reduce if not eliminate many of the drawbacks in the current legal system? And might there be aspects in some of them that would appease not only Republicans, but Democrats as well?
In fact, there are three ideas that are being increasingly circulated.
Read more
Hospital Finances Rebounding
by John Commins
Many of the nation's hospitals have made impressive financial and operational turnarounds in the first quarter of 2009, apparently reversing troubling trends that only months earlier had placed a considerable portion
of the sector in red ink, according to a new Thomson Reuters study
released today.
"It looks a lot better than it did six or eight months ago. I expected to see some recovery, but this was a lot," says Gary Pickens, a coauthor of the study, which was compiled by Thomson Reuters' Center for Healthcare Improvement. "If you look at our previous report the big news was that hospitals' total margins-the combination of their operating and non-operating activity-had taken a huge hit because of outright declines in the stock market. As we fast forward to today we are not in that situation clearly. The total margins have recovered pretty substantially, which reflects the recovery in large part the recovery in the stock market."
Read more
How Will California's Tougher-Than-HIPPA Privacy Laws Impact U.S. ?
by Anne Zieger
As the recent case of records snooping at California's Kaiser Bellflower hospital demonstrates, state health data protection laws can be tougher than federal HIPAA law--and enforcement on the state-level can be tougher too, as the pair of six-figure fines suffered by the hospital suggests. And while California may be a pioneer, don't expect it to be the last. Expect states to crack down on health data privacy across the United States, at least if the California measures prove to have teeth, experts suggest.
Read more
"Where's That Policy?"
Attend a FREE Educational Webinar
Join us Wednesday, November 4, 2009 from 10 AM - 11:30 AM PST for a free educational webinar. Just click on the register button below or if this does not fit your schedule , send Tom Reid an email at tom.reid@indidge.com or call him now at (480) 829-0479 Ext. 138 to schedule a web demo that better fits your schedule.
Click here to register for the Wednesday, November 4th Webinar
Laughter is the Best Medicine!
Laughing Face
Dear Subscriber,
Feel free to suggest topics that would be of interest to you or comments to contact@indidge.com.
Sincerely,
Dave Swanson
Director of Marketing
Indidge Systems