Medical providers to be required to ask patients about residency ...
498380
When a Grand Prairie, Texas, teenager broke his collarbone playing football three years ago, his mother feared that the emergency room staff at Parkland Memorial Hospital
502721
By Scott Mayerowitz, The Providence Journal, R.I.  Feb. 7--PROVIDENCE -- The state's top nonprofit organizations yesterday  made their case as to why they think a law is needed to clarify that donations  by out-of-state residents can't be used by the state to determine residency  here.
269955
Doctors need guidance on how to avoid problems using technology to reach patients, says a researcher.
667696
There's an open secret in medicine: Patients lie.
160344
SAN DIEGO A San Diego surgeon is leading a challenge of a federal rule that requires doctors who receive government funds to provide translation services for their non-English-speaking patients.
103430
Having easy access to a doctor's e-mail address appears to increase patient communication.
728417
RICHMOND -- A measure championed by gay men and lesbians that would give hospital patients explicit authority to choose their visitors is quietly coursing through the Virginia General Assembly.
634725
When patients with heart disease are brought to a hospital, why not identify suggest a screening for their family as well?
169727
CONCORD, NH -- Federal health officials posed several questions to the state Thursday about proposed Medicaid changes. Health authorities want to know how the state would set limits on care, how it would decide
643697
The American Medical Association is concerned, but says more research is needed before a definitive statement can be made.
121424
Hospital patients are being asked to become hygiene inspectors under plans announced by a health board.
221202
Patients are to be asked their views on NHS treatment in Scotland in a bid to improve services.
559893
New Yorkâs attorney general is looking into if insurers forced patients to overpay for out-of-network doctors.
704298
(InfoWorld) - The U.S. needs new medical privacy rules as the country moves toward greater use of IT to store health records, a group of health-care experts said Wednesday. "Thousands" of databases that contain U.S. residents' health records exist, and patients don't have any way to keep their personal information from being shared with third parties, said Dr. Deborah Peel, a psychiatrist and founder of the Patient Privacy Rights Foundation. Private companies have been data-mining prescription records for years, she added. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), passed by the U.S. Congress in 1996, sets security standards that health-care providers must follow, but the law leaves major gaps in privacy, Peel said at an electronic health-records privacy forum sponsored by public relations firm Dittus Communications. HIPAA gave many organizations with ties to health-care vendors, including offshore transcription vendors, insurance brokers and credit bureaus, authorization to use health care-records, she said. "Because of this confusion that HIPAA engendered, data is being exchanged and used for reasons that have nothing to do with people getting well," she said. "People think this is the wild west because of HIPAA, and every piece of data that's not nailed down can be used for some other purpose." While panelists at the forum seemed to agree that some type of privacy policy for e-health records is needed, they did not agree on how to accomplish it. Peel called for the U.S. government to create a national standard, but David Merritt, project director at the Center for Health Transformation and the Gingrich Group, called for private groups to develop privacy standards. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has proposed moving a privacy commission to the private sector, but a bill sponsored by Senator Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, would keep that commission in the federal government. In addition, Kala Evelyn Ladenheim, program director for state health policy leadership at the National Conference of State Legislators, called on the federal government to allow states to develop their own privacy policies. Some states may create stronger protections than a national effort would, she said. But 50 state privacy policies would be difficult for health providers to comply with, countered Tom Wilder, senior regulatory counsel for America's Health Insurance Plans, a trade group representing health insurance providers. In most other industries, private organizations have developed privacy policies, Merritt said. He called on a public and private partnership to create privacy standards. "The government is really good at creating commissions and creating advisory boards ... and studying an issue," he said. "What the government is not good at, and what we shouldn't ask it to do, is to lead and to act." Peel disagreed, saying health-care providers would have conflicts when creating privacy standards, and HHS employees may not have the public's best interest in mind. "We would actually say the problem is that the government is not in the lead," she said. "Unelected officials, bureaucrats and conflicted industry representatives shouldn't be making decisions about privacy."
344937
The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recommends asking your doctor or pharmacist these questions when getting a new medication:
638518
GPs are becoming more remote from their patients, an opinion poll has revealed.
195458
A complaining patient removed from a medical practice's list has prompted concerns about new doctors' contracts.