Provides a large volume of uncompensated care

Assignment Help Other Subject
Reference no: EM131193359

Assignment

Activity 6.1: Hilltop Memorial Hospital

Hilltop memorial Hospital (HMH) is an acute general hospital in Windsor County. It is owned and operated by a private, nonprofit corporations, and it has tax-exempt status under federal and state tax laws. HMH provides a large volume of uncompensated care and service to Medicaid patients, but it receives no public funds from the county government.

Windsor County has no public hospital. The only hospital in the county is a for-profit facility that provides relatively little uncompensated care. Therefore, HMH is the safety-net for uninsured, underinsured, and Medicaid patients in the region. Under these circumstances, HMH relies heavily on its insured patients to subsidized its indigent care and its losses on Medicaid patients.

On April 6, 2013, George Long went to the outpatient department of HMH for diagnosis and treatment of back pain. Ling had made an appointment for that outpatient visit, and he arrived at HMH on schedule. Long had been to HMH many times for is back pain and for treatment of his mental health conditions. As indicated by his medical record at HMH, Long had a history of mental health problems, including episodes of delusion.

On that particular day, Long was escorted to an examining room in HMH's outpatient department and was instructed to wait for the nurse. A few minutes later, the nurse arrived to find Long running around the examining room in an agitated manner. The nurse was unable to calm him and immediately called for the doctor. The doctor and nurse held Long's arms for about one minute until he became calm. After Long assured them that he could remain calm, the doctor completed examination of his back and instructed him to return in two weeks if he was still in pain.

One week later, Long went to the office of a private, nonprofit advocacy organization called Patient Rights of Windsor County (PRWC) to discuss his recent experience at HMH. Long told the president of PRWC that during his visit to HMH on April 6, 2013, the doctor and nurse at HMH had slapped him in the face and hit him in the stomach.

With the help of the president of PRWC, Long called the local newspaper and gave this same account to a reporter. The reporter took detailed notes of the conversation with Long and then called the CEO of HMH to hear her side of the story. However, the CEO replied that, because of privacy laws, she could not comment or provide any information about any individual patient at HMH. The local newspaper published a story about Long's allegations, including the details of his statement and the fact that HMH's CEO had no comment. Long has not filed a complaint with the police or with any government agency about this alleged incident, nor has he filed any legal action against HMH or the individual healthcare professionals.

During the next few weeks, members of PRWC participated in a series of demonstrations on the public sidewalk in front of HMH. Many of the PRWC members carried signs that stated "Stop HMH from beating patients". The local newspaper published three stories about those demonstrations, in which the newspaper repeated Long's allegations and HMH's refusal to comment.

In the three months since the first newspaper report about Long's allegations, HMH has experienced a severe drop in visits by patients who have coverage through commercial health insurance or employer-based health plans. It appears that a substantial majority of those insured patients have chosen to receive care at the for-profit hospital in the county or at hospitals in other counties. HMH relies heavily on those insured patients to subsidized its indigent care and its losses on Medicaid patients. HMH has determined that it will be unable to pay all of its operating expenses if this situation continues for another six months.

The CEO of HMH attempted to communicate with Long in an effort to resolve the matter or, at least, obtain his consent to allow HMH to release his medical record to the local newspaper. The CEO even suggested that it might be possible to make a financial settlement with him, in exchange for a neutral press release that would be acceptable to both sides. However, Long refused to discuss any type of settlement and refuse to consent to the release of his medical record.

The board of trustees of HMH ("the board") held a emergency meeting to discuss the situation and consider its options. After receiving an update from the management of HMH, members of the board suggested various alternatives. Board member A argued that HMH must continue its current position of refusing to make any comment or provide any information about an individual patient. In contrast, nard member B took the position that Long gave up his privacy by giving the mass media information-albeit false information- about hit treatment at HMH. Therefore, Long would have no right to complain if HMH were to set the record straight by releasing his medical record, which could show that he has a long history of delusional episodes. Board member C stated that only a stupid law would prevent HMH from defending itself and its staff under these circumstances, and disclosing a small amount of information about Long's medical history would be a technical violation at most. Finally, board member D argued that ethical considerations require disclosing Long's history of delusional episodes, because the potential harm to Long from his loss of privacy is vastly outweighed by the greater good of preserving the community's safety-net hospital, which is at serious risk of insolvency.

Please evaluate HMH"S alternatives from both an ethical and a legal perspective, including consideration of the federal HIPAA privacy rule. Also, please decide whether the current law should be clarified or amended. Be prepared to explain the reasons for your conclusions.

Instructor, instructions for assignment:

Submit your substantive and timely narrative. Each narrative shall include proper APA style in-text citations and references to textbook and, at minimum, one external authoritative source.

Textbook is: Contemporary Issues in Healthcare Law & Ethics (Fourth Edition), Dean M. Harris.

Reference no: EM131193359

Questions Cloud

Problem regarding the temporarily change prices : Sometimes firms conduct experiments where they temporarily change prices (this may be done with selective coupons and other discounting methods) to see how the consumer responds to a price change.
Discuss possible practices from guerrilla marketing campaign : Discuss possible best practices from the guerrilla marketing campaign that different types of small businesses could leverage. Provide specific examples to support your response.
Determining the equilibrium price and quantity in market : Suppose that global economic growth is expected to slow in the next few quarters, explain the impact on the relevant market and determine what will happen to the equilibrium price and quantity in that market.
Do corporations have similar opportunity : Compare and contrast individual (1040) and corporate (1120) tax forms. Identify two differences between the form and the current tax rate schedules for individuals and corporations. Individuals can reduce their taxable income for the prior year in th..
Provides a large volume of uncompensated care : HMH provides a large volume of uncompensated care and service to Medicaid patients, but it receives no public funds from the county government.
Nowadays a growing problem in the world : Plastic grocery bags are nowadays a growing problem in the world, bags now are everywhere including the oceans where wildlife strange, choke and make the animals to die due to its consumption.
The pros and cons of using professional interpreter : What are the pros and cons of using a professional interpreter when doing international business? What do the terms back translation, parallel translation, and cultural translation mean with regard to translating text? What are some examples of compa..
Has the ad shifted your thoughts or feelings : Evaluate your response. Has the ad shifted your thoughts or feelings about the product/service? Why or why not?
Business performance management system : Employee incentive plans are widely used in organizations to align employee behavior toward the corporate strategy. Some experts argue that employee incentive programs are not effective and may even be detrimental in some instances. Evaluate the effe..

Reviews

Write a Review

 

Other Subject Questions & Answers

  Discuss kants notion of the categorical imperative

Discuss Kants notion of the categorical imperative. What is it? Explain the three formulas that Kant lays out in the Grounding. How do we derive particular moral duties from the categorical imperative? What is its significance with respect to Kants p..

  Discuss two different neurological disorders

Discuss 2 different neurological disorders that can occur in development and how they affect development. In addition, discuss what research suggests about the effects of spiritual disciplines (prayer, meditation) on neurobiology.

  Democratic-republicans to the political parties

Explain the evolution of political parties from the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans to the political parties that exist today.

  Human resource management-contributions to organizational

Elaborate on how human resource managers can teach company leaders about the effectiveness of human resource management and contributions to organizational success.

  How did your decision compare to the boards decision why

resource magnolia therapeutic solutions caseread the magnolia therapeutic solutions case located on the student

  Find the expected age of a moose killed by a wolf

For each age group, compute the probability that a moose in that age group is killed by a wolf. Consider all ages in a class equal to the class midpoint. Find the expected age of a moose killed by a wolf and the standard deviation of the ages.

  What portion of the plan would you like to implement

What small group have you selected (for example, three families with young children, a group of five AIDS patients, and so on)? What made you select this particular group? What portion of the plan would you like to implement in the small group

  Lecture to an introductory psychology

You overhear a psychologist presenting a lecture to an introductory psychology class. The teacher mentions "purposeful or goal-directed behavior that may vary in intensity from one occasion to another."

  The steps necessary to implement a crm system solution

Discuss the reasons why many companies are not able to achieve the performance breakthrough even though they have made big investment in technology. What according to you are the steps necessary to implement a CRM system solution.

  Popular music culture have become

The fact that MTV, the cable channel devoted primarily to music, provided extensive coverage of the 1992 presidential race demonstrates how ------- politics and popular music culture have become.

  The diagram is accurate and labeled correctly the diagram

a general manger of harley-davidson has to decide on the size of a new facility. the gm has narrowed the choices to two

  Individual rights and the obligations of government

individual Rights and the Obligations of Government

Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd