Physician Ethical Dilemmas

A medical office administrative assistance must know the importance of proper medical documentation,the legal aspects of documentation and the various medical laws, regulations, and acts; understand language and other communication barriers, proper billing and reimbursement procedures, workplace conflict and diversity; and know how to properly maintain patient ledger cards. Accurate medical documentation ensures the patient receives the proper treatment and aides in validating medical necessity. This documentation is not only critical to the patient but the facility as well because it ensures proper codes are assigned, clean claims are submitted, and allows the reimbursement process runs smoothly. Medical office administrative assistants must understand the imporatance in protecting patient privacy because they have an ethical and legal

Responsible coder collects post and manages account payments, submitting claims and keeping in touch with insurance companies. If patient information is coded incorrectly or incomplete it could leave an impact that can be brought to a claim. Inaccuracy in patient information can leads to denials, none payment and investigation. It is important to get all the details right by verifying insurance coverage properly. Make sure that the patient’s name is spelled correctly, date of birth and sex of patient are correct; and most important be sure that the policy number is valid.0verall before claims are sent, documentation should be in order and the claim should be checked for completeness and accuracy.

McCall Ethics Case Study Jerry is Dr. Williams’s office assistant. He has received professional training as both a medical assistant and an LPN. He is handling all the phone calls while the receptionist is at lunch. A patient calls and says he must have a prescription refill for Valium and that the provider, a friend, calls in the medication prior to any flights. This type of request happens often and in slightly different scenarios, but the outcome should remain the same to avoid ethical and legal issues. This paper will review the case study to help resolve the problem at hand, refilling a prescription without provider authorization. Qualified Medical Training Understanding the definitions of a licensed practical nurse, LPN, and a medical assistant, MA is the first step to making a factual conclusion for this case study. Support staff to the provider cannot make decisions about medication refills for patients without a direct order from the provider. This action is outside the scope of practice for an LPN or MA. Licensed Practical Nurse An LPN is a role in support of the nurse or RN, a registered Nurse usually in a skilled nursing setting such as a hospital or long-term care facility. As defined by the National Federation of Licensed Practical Nurses, NFLPN, an LPN “means the performance for compensation of authorized acts of nursing which utilize specialized knowledge and skills and which meet the health needs of people in a variety of settings under the direction

Upcoding claims. A patient comes into the practice with a sprained ankle. The doctor does all the right things to diagnose and treat the injury. The problems start when the medical coder begins his or her work. Instead of coding the reason for the visit as a sprained ankle, the coder makes it a broken ankle. By making the diagnosis more serious, the practice will receive more compensation from the payer.

Responsible coder collects post and manages account payments, submitting claims and keeping in touch with insurance companies. If patient information is coded incorrectly, or incomplete it could leave an impact that can be brought to a claim. Inaccuracy in patient information can lead to denials, none payment and investigation. It is important to get all the details right by verifying insurance coverage properly. Make sure that the patient’s name is spelled correctly, date of birth and sex of the patient are correct; and most important be sure that the policy number is valid.0verall before claims are sent, documentation should be in order and the claim should be checked for completeness and accuracy.

When it comes to the Guatemalan syphilis experiment and the Tuskegee experiment both were two unique experiments. Recently, the United States apologized last year for the experiment, done in Tuskegee which was meant to test the drug penicillin. However, Two years before that, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made an apology for the experiment conducted in Guatemala. With that said, the researcher rejects the case that a utilitarian could make the case that the Guatemalan syphilis study was more ethically defensible than the Tuskegee study, because the Guatemalan study had greater potential to lead to useful medical knowledge that could save many lives, while the Tuskegee study did not have any such potential (Bonnie Steinbock, 2005). I believe that neither experiment was for medical knowledge or served and medicinal purpose and that

Healthcare professionals will be faced with ethical dilemmas throughout their career, particularly in the hospital environment. Having an education regarding professional healthcare ethics will provide some direction in how to best address these dilemmas at a time when either the patient or their family is in need of making decisions for themselves or their family member. It can be difficult for healthcare professionals to weigh professional protocol against their own personal beliefs and ethical understandings when determining critical care for their patient.

Last week I had the opportunity to talk to Mr. R who was brought in to the hospital due to a workplace injury. The referral was put through by the attending physician indicating that there was concerns of substance use. I started the conversation by introducing my role as a hospital social worker and tried to build report by asking Mr. R how he was managing at the hospital. Being transparent is important and explaining the reason for the visit helps in creating trust for the therapeutic intervention. I probed Mr. R about his alcohol use and if he identified that as being an issue for him. Mr. R indicated that he has been using alcohol for over a long period and reports this as a part of his daily social life, which makes it hard for abstinence.

The argument regarding the selling of organs on the black market has been an ethical and medical controversy for decades. The problems that exists ethically is to be believed that putting a price on a human organ is materialistic, people may go to extremes to donate a kidney, and the fear of the spread of infections or diseases. Although the fears are natural, mostly because people have always associated the black market with a negative connotation, the ethical fears out-weigh the idea that donating a kidney can save a person’s life (Taylor, 2006). To make an accurate assumption about organs on the black market, both the positives and negatives need to be evaluated, this paper analyzes both positions regarding the issue and proposes that

29. In your opinion what responsibilities, if any, does a physician or other health care practitioner have toward difficult family members or other third parties who interfere with a patient’s medical care?

When doctors see patients 50/50 chance they aren’t seeing their family members . There is many reasons why the doctors don’t treat their family . There are states that have laws for doctors saying that the use of medical attention to a family member . The question is if this is an ethical decision or not ? Should doctors be able to perform on people in their family or they shouldn’t ?

Many professions such as physicians, nurses, and lawyers establish and adopt a code of ethics. A code of ethics is general rules and principles set to establish trust with the public and other professionals. Trust that their profession has a core set of values that will be used in decision making, behavior, and protects people from devious acts that someone can benefit from. A code of ethics creates a high standard to protect the profession itself from compromising individuals and it also allows the profession to have an evaluation benchmark when needed. “Following a professional code of ethics can produce many benefits for the individual, the profession, and society as a whole” (Reynolds 54). The physician code of ethics is one of the most

doctors. When a physician cannot come to a definite right, or ethical, conclusion, he or she may

During a patient visit, all that is done for the patient must be transcribed into the correct codes. Along with these codes, there must be sufficient supporting information documented in the patient record. When the supporting evidence is not there, that line will either be down-coded or the billing being rejected. A rejected bill requires more time and effort by the physician’s staff to correct the issue and resubmit it. Billing with the correct primary, sub and supporting codes will prevent the extra work and possible loss of money. This is not just an ethical and financial need to do so, but a legal responsibility. In many cases, the coder is held responsible for incorrect or erroneous billing.

Everyday, healthcare professionals are faced with ethical dilemmas in their workplace. These ethical dilemmas need to be addressed in order to provide the best care for the patient. Healthcare professionals have to weigh their own personal beliefs, professional beliefs, ethical understandings, and several other factors to decide what the best care for their patient might be. This is illustrated in Mrs. Smith’s case. Mrs. Smith is an 85 year old who has suffered from a large stroke that extends to both of her brains hemispheres which has left her unconscious. She only has some brain stem reflexes and requires a ventilator for support. She is unable to communicate how she wishes to proceed with her healthcare. Mrs. Smith’s children, Sara and Frank have different views regarding their mother’s plan of care. The decision that needs to be made is whether to prolong Mrs. Smith’s life, as Sara would like to do, or stop all treatments and care, as Frank feels his mother would want. In the healthcare field, there are situations similar to this case that happen daily where moral and ethical judgment is necessary to guide the decision that would be best for the patient. The purpose of this paper is to explore and discuss, compare and contrast the personal and professional values, ethical principles, and legal issues regarding Mrs. Smith’s quality of life and further plan of care.