Holland & Hart Healthcare Law Blog

THREE INCENTIVE PITFALLS FOR HOSPITAL EMPLOYED PHYSICIANS.

More and more physicians are seeking hospital employment. Health care reform and widely anticipated federal Medicare reimbursement cuts are fueling another round of physician employment fever in hospitals.  Some observers predict that as many as eighty five percent of physicians will be hospital employees in the next ten years. There seems little doubt that there will be tremendous pressure from a variety of sources to rein in unrestricted “fee for service” retail medical practices in the future.

Healthcare Log Blog Named Among Top 50 Health Administration Blogs

Online Masters in Healthcare Administration recently named our Healthcare Law blog among the top 50 health administration blogs. A complete listing is available here: http://www.onlinemha.com/2009/top-50-blogs-to-learn-about-health-administration/

Transplant Follies: Live Liver Lie Leads To Surgeon Indictment

It is a felony to lie to a federal government official concerning an administrative matter or process within his or her jurisdiction. Dr. Richard R.Lopez, M.D., 54, the former head of the liver transplant program at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA was the recipient of a grand jury indictment this month for lying about and falsifying records concerning a liver transplant to federal transplant officials.  The lie was essentially to deceive the identity of the actual recipient of the liver. 

JUSTICE KENNEDY, THE “COMMERCE CLAUSE” AND THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF HEALTH REFORM.

There is a lot of “buzz” in the media and on capital hill these days with Sen.Orrin Hatch and a number of allies aligned to challenge the constitutionality of the Obama Administration's Health Care Reform bill pending reconciliation in the Congress. The principal focus of the attacks seem to be the assertion that the federal government lacks the power under the “commerce clause” to regulate purely intrastate activity that have little or no impact on commerce among the states and the assertion that  the federal government cannot legally force and individual to purchase health insurance.  Justice Kennedy as usual is likely to be the swinging gate that decides this issue in the Supreme Court.

MONTANA AFFIRMS RIGHT TO PHYSICIAN ASSISTED SUICIDE-THROUGH STATUTORY, NOT CONSTITUTIONAL, ANALYSIS.

In a decision filed on the last day of 2009, the Montana Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision concerning the right of a dying patient to a physician assisted suicide though it based its decision on an analysis of Montana statutes and public policy rather than the state Constitutional analysis adopted by the trial court below. In Baker et al v. The State of Montana et al., 2009 MT 449 (MT, December 31, 2009), the court followed the maxim of Viscount Falkland that when it is not necessary to make a decision, it is necessary not to make a decision and side stepped addressing whether there exists a constitutional right to die with dignity in the State constitution as requested by the principal plaintiff, Robert Baxter. Mr. Baxter, a retired truck driver, suffered from lymphocytic leukemia with diffuse lymphadenopathy.  Mr. Baxter, now deceased, contended that the State Constitution gave him the right to choose the timing and circumstances of his impending death, rather than suffer the indignities that he perceived in palliative care and the imposition that a drawn out departure would have upon his family.  He wanted the right to obtain a prescription of life terminating drugs from his physician without fear that his physician would be prosecuted for violation of state law.