Ballot Measure Proposes Increase to California’s MICRA

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Blog Administrator

A statewide ballot measure has been filed for the November 2014 general election, which if successful would raise California’s MICRA cap on non-economic damages by over 380%. Over the last three months, media campaigns backed by proponents of the increase have been flooding the Sacramento media market.

The proposed changes to MICRA would increase the cap on non-economic damages from $250,000 to over $1.2 million. A former California legislative analyst estimates that simply raising MICRA’s cap on non-economic damages from $250,000 to $500,000 would ultimately increase California’s healthcare cost by $9.5 billion dollars. Some argue that if the cap was raised to $1.2 million, the results could be staggering.

To read more about the ballot initiative:
http://www.micra.org/ballot-initiative/ballot-initiative.html

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Take Command of Your Online Presence

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Blog Administrator

Maintaining a well groomed online reputation is essential to attract new patients in the digital age. You may not even realize how large your reputation may be. Sites such as Yelp.com, Vitals.com, Google Places, and Healthgrades.com allow patients to rate their doctors. In a 2011 survey, online resources were rated as one of the top factors in choosing a new doctor. These sites can be used to market yourself and build your brand. They allow you to enter basic information about your practice such as your credentials, office hours, address, your picture, as well as list announcements regarding practice changes. However, if any of the aforementioned websites do not contain your practice do not despair. It will only take 20 to 30 minutes to set up.

Customer Care

Consider your practice in a similar way to a restaurant, or your mechanic. You are part of a process where the consumer has a need, somehow picks you out of a crowd of thousands, then once services are rendered, both sides decide on whether or not the exchange lead to a positive outcome.

If you take a moment to segment the layman example above, services really fall under two categories: the “How the customer finds you” category, and the “Was it worth it?” category.

“How the customer finds you” Category

The websites listed above, and others such as social media do you a favor by getting your name out there and in front of potential patients. Once you put your name out there though, you are at the mercy of the general public. The general public can either post positive or negative reviews about you, your practice, or the doorman at the building where your practice is located.

How do I control what my patients say about me? The simple answer is, you can’t. But, you can sway opinion.

“Was it worth it?” Category

The way you approach your customer service will be the largest factor in how you are portrayed on any of these websites. If customer service is secondary for your practice, odds are that you have a better than average chance at getting negative reviews. If you have sound customer service policies in place, odds are that you will get better than average reviews. The best way to take advantage of these types of websites is to empower your patients to talk about their experience at your office in a positive manner. Positive reviews = more patients and referrals.

As you can see, this is a feedback cycle. You get to choose the outcome. Take command of your online presence and reap the rewards.

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Pennsylvania Malpractice Cases Continue to Decrease

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Blog Administrator

A medical malpractice trend has gained the attention of Northern Pennsylvania’s Lackawanna County. The number of malpractice filings in 2012 has fell 53.8 percent compared to the early 2000s. The decline is attributed to two reformations initiated by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

  1. Attorneys are required to file the medical malpractice claim in the county where the incident took place. This eliminates the practice of filing lawsuits in plaintiff-friendly counties.
  2. Attorneys are required to obtain a certificate of merit indicating the claim made by the plaintiff is valid.

However the fear of instituting this type of tort reform nationwide is met with serious trepidation. Tort reform does nothing to reduce the number of actual medical accidents per year, giving some validation to the viewpoint that tort reform denies the public from being able to receive compensation for injuries.

A 2011 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine says that one in 14 doctors faces a malpractice suit every year. Also, just about every physician will face at least one malpractice lawsuit at one point in their career.

The study reports that although many suits are filed, few are successful—with the patient winning only 22 percent of the time.

“The report doesn’t provide information that is surprising to those in the medical professional liability industry,” said Rob Francis, chief operating officer at The Doctors Company. “The frequency of claims does vary significantly by specialty, and the majority of claims are resolved in favor of the physician, pointing out the prevalence of frivolous claims. In our data, over 80 percent of claims are closed with no payment to plaintiffs.”

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Why Preventing Physician Burnout is Cost Effective

Posted on July 18, 2013 by Blog Administrator

The number one cause of physician burnout is stress, partly due to the quality of care that a doctor is able to provide. What does this mean? Often times the personal standards to which a doctor will hold themselves to can be higher than the level they are able to provide. The quality of care gets diluted with tasks such as paperwork piled on top of long hours and high patient load.

Streamlining efficiencies and the administration process for each patient can help to reduce undue strain, however patient generated stress still occurs. To reduce this stress, a well-trained HR department outfitted to handle personal counseling can help to relieve physician stress, thus improving the overall quality of care.

Another source of stress can also be attributed to finances. The average physician experiencing burnout describes their personal finances as either little to no savings or in unmanageable debt. This can be alleviated with a debt management service or further counseling. It may be a good idea for a doctor experiencing financial woe to talk to someone who has been there before, and how they can expect to get back to financial stability.

Studies have shown that unhappy or burned out doctors are at a higher risk of making mistakes, which can lead down a litigious road. Revamping your current resources to improve overall office health can lead to a better state of mental health, and from an employer standpoint, improving the quality of office healthcare can lead to savings as well.

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Avoiding Litigation: Guidelines for Mitigating Risk

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Blog Administrator

A new study from the RAND Corporation has concluded that the average physician spends 50 months trapped in medical malpractice litigation, with the majority of these lawsuits ending in no fault of the doctor. Recent data also reveals that as much as 70% of the cases end in no payment to the plaintiff. Over the course of a physician’s career, it can be expected that the physician will be engaged in medical malpractice litigation at least once and most likely multiple times.

These guidelines can help prevent claims and promote patient safety. This keeps doctors focused on healing and not hearings.

Communication: It’s important to understand that the majority of the patients may not follow your instructions so easily. To remedy this, have patients repeat instructions back to you rather than asking for confirmation of understanding. Furthermore it’s always good to provide your patient with written instructions particularly with the elderly. Lastly, have your patients affirm through signature that they understand the instructions you have provided to them.

Documentation: Always double-check the information provided in the Electronic Medical Record. The information that is automatically aggregated by the system may be inaccurate. Never alter anyone’s medical record under any circumstance.

Follow-up: It’s good to have a system for patients that miss appointments. If a patient is missing appointments consistently, a communication structure must be in place to address the situation. Follow up with patients to reschedule and explain the importance of follow-up care.

Medication Errors: Medication errors harm 1.6 million people a year in the United States. To prevent such mistakes, it’s important to take allergies into consideration. Check the allergies on the EMR every time before prescribing medication. It is also important on the follow up appointment to review any side effects the medicine may be causing the patient. Finally make sure patients are aware of LASA, (look-alike sound-alike medication), so they can easily differentiate between their medications.

HIPAA Regulations: Your patients health information is protected by federal law and should be treated as such. For that reason, special precautions should be taken to protect this information. The computer servers or cloud services you use to protect your patients health information should be secure in more than one way. At least once a year take the time to assess the security of your patient’s information. It is also a good idea to talk to your agent or broker about cyber liability insurance and how it can help keep your practice protected from unforeseen exposure.

Malpractice claims are an unfortunate part of being a modern doctor. The toll it takes on a physician’s time, reputation, and stress can be detrimental to any career. Taking these steps can help you focus on what you do best, providing exceptional healthcare.

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Carrier Announces $21 Million Member Dividend

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Blog Administrator

One of Madison’s most renowned insurance carriers, and the nation’s largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurer, recently announced a $21 million dividend to reward their insureds. The 2013 dividend marks the seventh year in a row that a dividend has been given to insureds. The company sited the reason for the dividend as a reward to members for their loyalty and dedication to advancing the practice of good medicine. The total dividend since the program’s beginning in 1976 has reached $287 million.

The dividend will provide a rate reduction for insureds in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Maryland, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. The dividend will vary from 5 to 15 percent depending on the loss experience of the individual state.

Trust

Madison has been working with this carrier for over a decade and takes pride in placing doctors and healthcare practitioners with some of the strongest medical malpractice insurance carriers in the nation. We started working with doctors in California and have had remarkable success placing a wide range of specialties with strong and reputable carriers. The trust that we’ve built with our California physicians has given us the opportunity to expand our services to doctors and other healthcare practitioners nationwide. By applying our time-tested strategies and success with California doctors, we’ve been able to help physicians in almost every state and specialty find a carrier they can trust and build a lasting relationship with.

Credibility

There’s a difference between placing coverage, and understanding the needs of each individual person that you interact with. A physician who dedicates their life to the practice of good medicine deserves the same care and attention from their broker. This is how we differentiate ourselves from other people you could be working with. Sure, you could work with someone else, but are they going to take the time to get to know your practice as well as Madison does? If you don’t have credibility, you don’t have much. Let’s have a conversation about your needs, and how we can help keep your practice covered against unexpected exposure. We welcome your call. 800-603-3311 or contact us.

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Florida Medical Malpractice Reform

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Blog Administrator

Recently, Florida lawmakers took a large step at helping doctors in their defense against medical malpractice insurance claims. The law would require expert witnesses who testify against the defense to share the same area of expertise as the defendant. Read the full article here Florida Lawmakers Approve Medical Malpractice Reform.

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Qualifications of Medical Expert Witnesses

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Blog Administrator

The qualifications of medical expert witnesses have recently come under fire in multiple states. The American Medical Association reports that, in the past year, three separate Maryland cases have been ruled to allow the testimony of doctors in specialties other than the defendant.

The courts found that a vascular surgeon was qualified to testify on the standard of care of an orthopedic surgeon, a pharmacist as qualified to testify in an informed consent case, and a nephrologist as being qualified to testify against a urologist.

Not all states have the same professional standards for determining whether or not a witness is qualified as an expert. In Arizona, an expert witness must be licensed and board certified in the same profession as the defendant. The expert witness is also required to have devoted a majority of their practice hours to that specific specialty for the year immediately preceding the claim.

Connecticut’s law on expert witnesses allows for a more loose interpretation by the court as to the qualifications of the witness. The law states that any healthcare provider may testify as an expert if they are a similar healthcare provider, or that the court determines the witness has enough training, experience and knowledge as a result of practicing or teaching in a related field.

Florida has just passed legislation that would require medical malpractice experts to have the same specialty as the defendant.

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Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare, SCHA collaborate on high-reliability program

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Blog Administrator

The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare and the South Carolina Hospital Association (SCHA) have teamed up to launch the South Carolina Safe Care Commitment. The initiative, which is the first of its kind for the center, includes 20 hospitals from seven health care systems located in South Carolina that will seek new ways to strengthen processes, systems, and structures in order to provide consistently excellent, safe patient care.

The collaboration is part of the center’s efforts to facilitate the progress of health care institutions toward high reliability in health care. High reliability is defined as consistent performance at high levels of safety over long periods of time. In other words, highly reliable health care eliminates all preventable harm and provides the safest, highest-quality care to every patient, every time.

Chief executive officers and other executives from participating South Carolina hospitals will meet regularly and participate in webinars and coaching sessions to collaborate on processes to move health care toward the same highly reliable performance found in industries such as commercial aviation and nuclear power. Success will be measured through the results of safety culture survey assessments and evidence that improvement activities have produced significant reductions in patient harm. In addition, the participating South Carolina hospitals will use a Web-based electronic application that the center has created to identify critical practices leading to high reliability and to help hospitals assess their performance.

Beyond the hospitals initially participating in the project, the collaboration between the center and the SCHA is designed to improve safety and quality in health care facilities across the state. The lessons learned about identifying the underlying causes of specific breakdowns in care and creating targeted solutions at participating hospitals will be shared with other hospitals. The focus on offering targeted, tested solutions has been a hallmark of the center, which has, through its Targeted Solutions Tool, provided a step-by-step process to assist accredited health care organizations in measuring performance, identifying barriers to excellent performance, and implementing proven solutions that are customized to address specific barriers.

For more information about the Center for Transforming Healthcare, visit www.centerfortransforminghealthcare.org/.
Article by American College of Surgeons

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Tips For Doctors Using LinkedIn

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Blog Administrator

With 100 million users and growing, LinkedIn is the largest social network focused on professional networking. LinkedIn gives users an opportunity to place their resumes online and list important professional qualifications that may be the deciding factor in whether or not you capture the younger generations who increasingly use the internet not only for entertainment, but for goods and services.

A well laid out LinkedIn page can be the difference in capturing the younger generation or blending in with the rest of the yellow page doctors out there; essentially falling victim to anonymity. Here are a few tips that can help your LinkedIn profile shine.

Keep Your Profile Current

The information you maintain on your LinkedIn profile should be treated as if you are looking for a new job. Keep information current and complete.

Although you want to keep your information current, try to avoid a regurgitation of your CV. You aren’t applying for insurance coverage, so give the bullet points.

Remember Your Audience

If you are trying to gain new business from LinkedIn users, show your potential patients how they will benefit from coming to your practice as opposed to someone else. What is your niche? What do you do that makes your practice stand out above the rest? If you aren’t sure, maybe it’s time to find this out. There could be a lot of prosperity in your future if you are able to successfully position yourself against your competition in a way that your patients will understand.

Remember the old saying, “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours”? Referrals are kind of the same thing. Take a little bit of time to connect with professionals you would gladly vouch for either online or in writing.

Only write referrals for people that you know provide a premium level of care. Giving out referrals to sub-par doctors reflects poorly on your judgment skills. On the flip side of the coin, you only want referrals from the best doctors. It builds trust and confidence. Trust and confidence are important to any consumer, but particularly in the health care field.

You have the ability to approve which referrals you want, so take care to make sure you are only allowing the referrals you want on your page. One thing you will also want to be aware of-your audience on LinkedIn is smart. They know what link swapping is, and it doesn’t bode well (reputationally speaking) if you make this tactic evident. If you receive a referral, wait one week to write one in return (if you choose to), and the same thing applies if you write a review for one of your peers. Wait at least a week before approving a referral from them.

Get Involved With LinkedIn Answers

LinkedIn provides a platform for people of all different walks of life to ask questions, and give other LinkedIn users an opportunity to answer. If you are seen as a professional with a wealth of knowledge in the Q & A forums, chances are pretty high that you will attract more people to your profile page. That’s where you want them to go right?

Essentially what you will want to remember is that your goal is to actively engage your audience. By using the tools available to you on LinkedIn, you are able to build credibility and trust, drive traffic to your LinkedIn page, and ultimately drive traffic to your business’ website.

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