Question

In 500 words,

1- Share one ethical or legal health care issue you have had to address in pharmaceutical field.

2- How would you respond with your course (LEGAL and ETHICAL ISSUES in HEALTH CARE MANAGEMENT) knowledge to date?

Answer 1

Talking about a legal healthcare claim, for an instance let’s talk about one of the major issues termed as False claims and whistleblower suits. The False Claims Act is a federal law that covers fraud involving any federally funded contract or program, including Medicare or Medicaid, allowing healthcare providers to be prosecuted for various actions leading to the submission of a fraudulent claim. The primary activities that may constitute violations under the False Claims Act include:

• Knowingly presenting to the federal government a false or fraudulent claim for payment.

• Knowingly using a false record or statement to get a claim paid by the federal government.

• Conspiring with others to get a false or fraudulent claim paid by the federal government.

• Knowingly using a false record or statement to conceal, avoid or decrease an obligation to pay money or transmit property to the federal government.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will expand the government's reach under the FCA with requirements aimed at enhancing fraud-fighting and increasing penalties for submitting false claims. Starting in 2012, physicians must return known overpayments to the government within 60 days of discovering an error.

In order to respond to such legal and ethical issues with health professional A self-administered structured questionnaire about knowledge of healthcare ethics, law and the role of an Ethics Committee in the healthcare system was devised, tested and distributed to all levels of staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Barbados (a tertiary care teaching hospital) during April and May 2003. The study highlights the need to identify professionals in the workforce who appear to be indifferent to ethical and legal issues, to devise means to sensitize them to these issues and appropriately training them.