A judge dismissed as "unconstitutionally vague" a 10-count indictment against former University Medical Center chief Lacy Thomas, who prosecutors alleged steered $10 million in no-work hospital contracts to his Chicago friends. District Judge Michael Villani on Thursday handed down the seven-page decision, which said the indictment "does nothing more than put Thomas on notice that he/UMC may have entered into an ill-conceived contract and that by entering into such a contract, his conduct is now deemed criminal in nature." Villani said that the indictment implied that any contract UMC or the county entered into that was more beneficial to a vendor should be considered criminal, something the judge would not accept. In his decision, Villani asked why the vendors weren't also charged if Thomas' actions were criminal.
Would you want a convicted rapist as your doctor? In Florida, that's apparently OK, according the Florida Board of Medicine, which voted Friday to allow a doctor who raped a co-worker to return to medical practice. The board decided being a rapist had nothing to do with being a good doctor. The board, meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, made the decision in the case of Tampa doctor Mark Seldes a former Air Force flight surgeon who was serving in South Korea when he was accused of raping a civilian co-worker. He was convicted in a military court-martial in 2008, served 3 years in prison, and was dismissed from the service for rape and adultery. He was also forced to be registered as a sex offender, and appears in the Florida Sex Offender Registry.
A Vernal, UT man has been charged with disorderly conduct after police say he caused alarm when he paid for a disputed medical bill in pennies. Jason West went to Basin Clinic prepared to dispute an outstanding bill, according to Assistant Vernal Police Chief Keith Campbell. West, 38, apparently did not believe he owed the clinic the $25 it said he did. "After asking if they accepted cash, West dumped 2,500 pennies onto the counter and demanded that they count it," Campbell said. "The pennies were strewn about the counter and the floor." The incident upset clinic staff, said Campbell, adding that West's behavior served "no legitimate purpose." Clinic staff told West they were calling police and he left the office. Officers caught up with West later and issued him a citation for disorderly conduct, an infraction, which carries a potential fine of $140.
Hospitals and doctors are pushing back against an Obama administration initiative that urges them to create accountable care organizations to coordinate the care of groups of Medicare patients. The voluntary program seeks to save money and improve treatment. But the healthcare providers say the rules proposed for the initiative are too onerous and the financial incentives too weak, and that they will participate only if the program gets a major revamp. The deadline for response to the proposal is June 6, but healthcare providers have already been unusually vocal in their complaints. "It's pretty much a nonstarter as structured," said Anders M. Gilberg, an official at the Medical Group Management Association. Jonathan Blum, deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in a statement that the agency has been "actively seeking input at every stage of the rule-making process, and we're confident that the final rule will reflect the valuable input we've received."
One of the less tragic but still serious losses in the Joplin tornado were the medical records scattered across neighboring towns and counties. The tornado's path included St. John's Regional Medical Center, where five patients and one visitor died. The heavily damaged hospital will be closed indefinitely. The circumstances of the deaths in the hospital are still being investigated. Meanwhile, medical records and X-rays have been found as far as Springfield, 75 miles away. The information wasn't lost, because the hospital had joined its parent company Mercy's electronic medical record system just three weeks earlier to back up the paper records. Those servers were not damaged by the tornado. Still, identifying information found on the paper records could include Social Security numbers, addresses, dates of birth and phone numbers.
The cost, physician practice size, and lack of technical resources still present barriers for small healthcare providers in adopting electronic health records and participating in the meaningful use incentive program. Solo practitioners and small practices find it difficult to locate a lender willing to offer them an unsecured loan, said Sasha Kramer, MD, a solo practitioner dermatologist in Olympia, WA. Others who try to finance their electronic health record system with the vendor have no leverage in negotiating terms because of their limited market share. Kramer was among public and private health IT experts and physicians who spoke at a June 2 hearing of the House Small Business Committee's health care and technology subcommittee.