Highmark has established new provider privileging requirements from diagnostic imaging to be effective January 1, 2009. The text of the requirements is available on the Highmark website in the ResourceCenter and is also attached below as a PDF.
www.medlawblog.com/uploads/file/Privileging Requirements.pdf
Dr. Poliner has petitioned the United States Supreme Court to review the Fifth Circuit decision dismissing his claims against Texas Health Systems based upon immunity under the Health Care Quality Improvement Act. Dr. Poliner is arguing that the Fifth Circuit in particular and courts in general have gone too far in granting immunity under the "objective…
Cases denying hospitals’ summary judgment motions based upon the Health Care Quality Improvement Act (HCQIA) immunity are rare. Stratienko v. Chattanooga-HamiltonCountyHospital Authority (full text opinion below) is one of the exceptions in which the physician not only defeated the motion for summary judgment, but also obtained an injunction against the summary suspension.
The …
In Nasim v. Los Robles Regional Medical Center (2008 Cal. App. LEXIS 1251), a California Appellate State Court held that adoption of credentialing criteria which would retroactively deny a physician certain clinical privileges was illegal under California law.
Los Robles Regional Medical Center adopted standards requiring board certification, and those standards required that subspecialty board …
Physicians initiating peer review litigation should be careful of two issues involving attorney’s fees. First, Section 42 USC 11113 of the Health Care Quality Improvement Act provides that hospitals may recover attorney’s fees from physicians who file frivolous or bad faith claims.
Second, sometimes the application for medical staff privileges contains clauses providing the immunity…
Click on the link to read the Poliner Opinion, as referenced in the previous blog post:
www.medlawblog.com/Poliner.pdf…
Continue Reading Poliner Opinion: Full Text
The Fifth Circuit reversed the dictrict court holding in the Poliner case, and concluding that the hospital had conducted an appropriate investigation and was therefore entltled to HCQIA immunity.
As with most of these cases, the law is fairly clear and the facts are the issue. In Poliner, the physician was asked or coerced into accepting…
The Supreme Court of Kansas ruled on May 16, 2008 affirmed in the case of Kansas Heart Hospital, LLC and Cardiac Health of Wichita vs. Badr Idbeis, M.D. and 13 other shareholder defendants, that the Kansas Heart Hospital, LLC and Cardiac Health of Wichita were justified in forcing a mandatory redemption of the other …
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee concluded that a hospital’s affirmative defenses pursuant to the Healthcare Quality Improvement Act (HCQIA) were not sufficient to independently establish federal jurisdiction, and therefore approved a physician’s motion to remand the state court case that had been removed to federal court by the hospital defendant.…
The Joint Commission announced the suspension of the planned July 2009 implementation date for the revised MS1.20 Medical Staff Standards. The Implementation Task Force has recommended a full field review and anticipates both changes to the existing proposals and a delayed implementation date. The full text of the news release is available …
