Legal Issues with Physicians Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Legal Issues with Physicians - Term Paper Example As per the predictions of CMS, the expenses may further grow by 7.3% yearly. This year USA will spend 3.1 trillion USD on healthcare programs. Medical Malpractice The key area within the healthcare law is  medical malpractice. Professionally, the term is used for delinquency or associated with a person having less than the required skills in medical treatment or providing patients with medical services. The victims that fall prey to medical malpractice are eligible for compensation with regard to their physical injuries (Sage & Kersh, 2006). A physician at fault will be accountable for medical misconduct, provided that the patient, who faced the misconduct, has established that medical practitioner crossed the limits in which the practitioner is bound to work that may be set of rules/procedures of accepted standards. In this case, the person, who receives damage, should be compensated, since the physicians violated the set procedure of care that caused the injury (Sage & Kersh, 200 6). Hence, in order to protect oneself against the sizeable costs of such claims, the physician will definitely seek refuge in the physician’s malpractice insurance cover. It has been observed that physicians’ malpractice costs reach billions of dollars each year. This has further inflamed substantial costs of healthcare. As far as the specialties are concerned, 50 percent costs of medical services go to providers’ malpractice premiums. Many physicians found themselves on a tight rope as the trend of misconduct premiums raised, e.g., the â€Å"defensive medicine† by the way of methods and analysis administered by the physicians to the patients, although they were not necessary. The record of such attitude of a physician speaks for it and attracts malpractice compensation. Several studies in this respect show that big amounts are spent on defensive tests and procedures each year (Sage & Kersh, 2006). The misconduct accountability is able to be extendable t o hospitals and other such facilities. For serious damages, plaintiff patient may have the benefit to avail additional compensation. Hence, we have found that the complicated historical doctrine disallows the corporate practice of not permitting physicians to be employed. In the United States, the government does not allow the medical practitioner to practice medicine corporately, claimants might not be given the right to lodge medical malpractice claims under HMOs or hospitals where the doctors are not considered employees of the hospital (Sage & Kersh, 2006). In the remote past, it was a difficult task to track malpractices information with regard to the physicians. In the United States of America, the federal government is responsible for maintaining the desired data bank of practitioners at national level besides misconduct values about $20,000. For the purpose of secrecy, it is not in the reach of public. However, the details are being passed on to medical boards, hospitals, an d other organizations for their reference. Keeping in mind the great demand of patients for cited information, a number of states is in the process of legislation so as to make it easily available to all people involved. We may quote here the example of Washington State, which provides access to information about physicians through certain channels: a) insurance company claim records, b) Data Bank of the Nationwide Medicine Practitioners, and c) medical board. The Massachusetts State follows the suit of Washington Sta