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Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

HOSPITAL RISK MANAGEMENT:

Head Off the Specter of Surgeons Performing Unneeded Procedures

Published on Wed Jan 13, 2010

4 strategies can help, including knowing these key warning signs. Talk about a PR and legal disaster: Media reports that a prominent cardiologist at a hospital may have implanted stents in patients who didn't need them. That scenario continues to play out for a Maryland hospital in a case that provides a cautionary reminder for hospitals to think through how to prevent a similar situation or at least nip it in the bud. Bad news: The Maryland hospital where the surgeon practiced has "sent letters to hundreds of patients... telling them that the extensive stents in their arteries may have been placed there unnecessarily or under false pretenses," states an article in the Baltimore Sun (www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bal-md.stent29jan29,0,6780233.story). The take-home message: Hospitals can get caught in the crosshairs when physicians practicing at their facilities get hit with allegations of providing unnecessary care. "Hospitals can't just say 'the physician ordered it,'" says [...]
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