The Healthcare Quality Improvement Act: The Quest for Immunity in Your Peer Review Process - webinar by Mentorhealth
June 24, 2015 - Fremont CA USMentorHealth
support@mentorhealth.com
Phone:8003851607
Fax:302-288-6884
Overview: This webinar will discuss the Health Care Quality Improvement Act (HCQIA) in detail, including the standards that must be met to achieve immunity under the act. The HCQIA itself will be reviewed, including a detailed look at the Congressional purpose for the act. The legislative history of the act will be reviewed to gain an understanding of the intent of Congress in passing the act. Next will be a review of the standards under the act. We will conduct a detailed review of each of the standards and the actions that are required to meet the intent of the standards. Specifically, there are four standards under the act that must be met. We will review each of these with an eye toward court interpretation of what actions an organization must take to achieve the protections granted by the act. First, the action must be taken "in the reasonable belief that the action was in the furtherance of quality health care." We will examine what this means and what is required for the entity taking the action to have a "reasonable belief." Second, the action must be taken "after a reasonable effort to obtain the facts of the matter." The webinar will discuss in some depth what is required to conduct an adequate investigation. Before any definitive action is taken, there must be an adequate investigation to determine the facts of the matter. This seems like simple common sense, but one would be surprised at how often the investigation is found to be less than what is expected. The focus of this portion of the webinar is to review what constitutes an adequate investigation, particularly one that will withstand the scrutiny of the court when the hospital or other professional review body is asking for immunity under the Health Care Quality Improvement Act (HCQIA). Third, the action must be taken, "after adequate notice and hearing procedures are afforded to the physician involved or after such other procedures as are fair to the physician under the circumstances." The act sets forth the "safe harbor" conditions that a health care entity must meet regarding adequate notice and hearing procedures. We will examine these safe harbor conditions and discuss in detail what must be done to achieve immunity under this standard. In addition, we will discuss what actions must be taken when a practitioner asks for a hearing but it is not possible to provide one. Fourth, the action must be taken, "in the reasonable belief that the action was warranted by the facts known after such reasonable effort to obtain facts and after meeting the [notice and hearing] requirement." While the analysis of this standard generally tracts the analysis of the first standard, "in the reasonable belief," there is considerable interpretation by the courts of exactly what this standard means and what must be done to accomplish it. We will review that court review and analyze the actions required to meet it. We will also review cases that discuss the situation where the peer review committee reached incorrect conclusions, and the implications that such a conclusion has for immunity under the act. MentorHealth Roger Steven contact no: 800-385-1607 fax no: 302-288-6884 Event Link:http://bit.ly/1D0VW2r support@mentorhealth.com www.mentorhealth.com