Holland & Hart Healthcare Law Blog

HEALTHCARE REFORM PART III:-THERE WILL BE PAIN!

 One of the unfortunate realities about Health Care Reform is that there will be pain.   The current trajectory of health insurance costs is unsustainable.  We are pushing 18% of the Gross National Product, more than double other industrialized countries and severely depressing our competitive edge in the world economy. Left unattended health care will continue to eat into American productivity, lifestyle, competitiveness and influence.   The solutions are not difficult to understand. The question is how to equitably distribute the pain. The strategy of “just saying no “ will just momentarily and ineffectively defer the pain. There are three ways, or combinations there of  to do it. The menu please!

CMS ISSUES MEMORANDUM REGARDING HOSPITAL EMTALA OPTIONS IN EVENT OF H1N1 FLU PANDEMIC.

On August 14, 2009, CMS issued a memorandum on requirements of hospitals under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (“EMTALA”) in the event of a surge in hospital emergency room visits for H1N1 influenza treatment. EMTALA requires all hospitals to provide an appropriate medical screening examination on presentation to determine whether the patient has an Emergency Medical Condition. If it determines that one exists, the hospital must treat and stabilize the patient within its capacity or transfer a patient to a hospital that has a capability and capacity to stabilize the condition. In anticipation of a surge in emergency room visits CMS issued additional guidance for hospitals to comply with EMTALA.

IOWA HOSPITAL COUGHS UP $4.5M TO FEDS TO SETTLE STARK CLAIM THAT IT OVER COMPENSATED EMPLOYED DOCS.

In 2005 a group of physicians from Cedar Valley Medical Specialists in Cedar Valley, Iowa raised concerns with Sen. Charles Grassley, then Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and with the IRS that Covenant Medical Center in Waterloo, Iowa was over compensating some of its employed physicians. According to 990s filed by Covenant with the IRS orthopedic surgeons Dr. Gary Knudson and Dr. Richard Naylor were paid $2.4 Million and $1.00 Million respectively for their services in 2002.  Dr. Victor Lawrinenko received $2.1 Million.

“VULGAR” MYSPACE BLOGING NURSING STUDENT ORDERED REINSTATED BY FEDERAL COURT.

Nina Yoder was a nursing student at the University of Louisville on an obstetrics rotation. In February 2, 2009, she posted a blog article on her MySpace page entitled “How I witnessed the Miracle of Life.”  The article, despite its uplifting title was largely snarkey, even vulgar as described by the defendants and even the judge in Nina Yoder v. University of Louisville, et al., Case No.3:09-CV-205-S (W.D. KY at Louisville),issued on August 3, 2009. The University dismissed Ms. Yoder for violating the School of Nursing Honor Pledge in a Memorandum Opinion  granting summary judgment reinstating Ms. Yoder. The blog article described a difficult birth in the context of the frustrations and emotional reaction of a tired and conflicted nursing student using graphic and unattractive descriptions of the participants and family awaiting the arrival of “the Creep.”

HEALTH CARE REFORM PART II: MAURAUDING SENIORS INVADE TOWN HALL.

Many of the seniors showing up at congressional town hall meetings on health care reform – at least those drawing the media’s attention seemed to be in serious need of adult supervision. The antics before the cameras seemed bent on disruption and venting of anger almost as much as the display of ignorance that seemed to pervade these events. Sure, the Seniors seemed to be angry at a lot of things in addition to health care.  They also seemed to be spurred on by irresponsible seniors-caring tactics by those commentators that have no ethical compunction against the intentional “misreading” of the text of the proposed house and inflammatory media ads by radical fringe groups 60plus.org.  to further political ends.

HEALTH CARE REFORM PART I: What's To Like About The U.S. Health Care System? - Six Hints.

Well, a lot, if the intensity of public reaction to pending proposals for change is any guide. Here are some hints.

1. Somebody else pays for it. Most of us have the benefit of health insurance provided by our employer or by the government under Medicare or Medicaid. Although we may be experiencing a growth in creeping co-pays, “donut holes” in coverage and other occasional contribution requirements, as well as those annoying “preexisting condition problems” most of us like the fact that mostly somebody else pays and were are not that involved in the messy business of health care finance.

BOOK REVIEW – CRITICAL: WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT THE HEALTH-CARE CRISIS. Sen. Tom Daschle with Scott S. Greenberger and Jeanne M. Lambrew. Thomas Dunn Books, St. Martin’s Press (2008).

 This small, readable book should be essential reading for all interested in the Health Care reform debate. It is probably more important for its influence than its content, because it was written by President Obama’s first choice as Secretary of HHS and lead player in the President’s efforts to accomplish health care reform until derailed by his failures in tax planning and by the current Deputy White House Health Care Reform guru, Jeanne M. Lambrew.

 

VIGILANTE NURSE SUIT NEEDLES STIMULUS ACT WITH CONTRIVED HEALTH CARE REFORM VENOM

Something about the State of New Hampshire sometimes attracts odd adherents to the “Live Free or Die” philosophy of which the state is proud.  In the recently filed case of Beatrice M. Heghmann v. Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Nancy-Ann Deparle, Director, White House Office of Health Reform, and Charlene Frizzera, Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 09 CV 5880, filed by Ms. Heghmann’s husband Robert Heghmann in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York,  the Heghmann’s inartfully cobble together a number of perceived grievances emanating from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, colloquially known as the Stimulus Act or ARRA depriving Ms. Heghmann and “all others similarly situated” from constitutional protections of privacy and from medical privacy and security protections under the Health Insurance Portability and Security Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”). This complaint seems more designed to attract attention and notoriety to the Heghmanns than any serious challenge to the implementation of the provisions of ARRA.