Administrative medical assisting 5th by lindh chapter08

Ethical Guidelines for Health Care Providers • AMA’s Code of Medical Ethics • American Osteopathic Association Code of Ethics • American Chiropractic Association’s Code of Ethics... Eth

Chapter 8

Ethical Considerations

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– More than 50 differing codes of ethics for professional

organizations

– Seven ethical codes that relate to the entire world

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or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Ethics

• Principle-centered leadership

– Guidelines to how you might perform ethically in medical setting

– Adapted from Stephen R Covey’s The 7 Habits of

Highly Effective People and Principle-Centered Leadership

• From The Power of Ethical Management by Kenneth

Blanchard and Norman Vincent Peale

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or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Keys to the AAMA Code of Ethics

• Render service with full respect for the dignity of humanity

• Respect confidential information

• Uphold honor and high principles of the profession and accept its disciplines

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Keys to the AAMA Code of Ethics

• Seek to improve knowledge and skills of medical assistants

• Participate in additional service

activities to improve health in

community

Ethical Guidelines for Health Care Providers

• AMA’s Code of Medical Ethics

• American Osteopathic Association Code of Ethics

• American Chiropractic Association’s Code of Ethics

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or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Ethical Guidelines for Health Care Providers

• Advertising

– Legal and ethical for providers to advertise if

claims made truthful and not misleading

– May include credentials of providers, description of practice, services rendered, how fees determined – Managed care agencies may advertise services and participating providers

Ethical Guidelines for Health Care Providers

– Some incidents must be reported

• Patient threatens another person

• Certain injuries and illnesses

• Subpoenaed information

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or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Ethical Guidelines for Health Care Providers

• HIPAA

– Care must be taken to protect confidentiality

– Only authorized individuals should be permitted to add or alter data

– HIPAA has specific guidelines for computer

privacy

Ethical Guidelines for Health Care Providers

• Medical records

– Records property of provider and patient

– Do not reveal information without patient consent– Record confidential

– Transfer records to authorized provider if

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or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Ethical Guidelines for Health Care Providers

• Professional fees and charges

– Illegal or excessive fees should not be charged– Based on fees customary to locale

– Reflect difficulty of services and quality of

performance

– Fee splitting unethical

Ethical Guidelines for Health Care Providers

• Professional fees and charges

– Providers may charge for missed appointments if that office policy known by patient

– Providers may charge to complete complex

insurance forms

– Bill only treatments documented on patient’s chart

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or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Ethical Guidelines for Health Care Providers

• Professional rights and responsibilities

– May choose whom to serve

– May not refuse patient on basis of race, color,

religion, national origin, or any other illegal

discrimination

– Cannot deny treatment of HIV-infected patient

– Cannot neglect or refuse patient treatment unless withdrawn from case

– Patients have right to know their diagnoses

Ethical Guidelines for Health Care Providers

• Professional rights and responsibilities

– Only providers should inform families of patient’s death

– Should expose incompetent, corrupt, dishonest, and unethical conduct by other providers

– May not treat patients if under influence of

controlled substances or alcohol

– Must take precautions if HIV positive

– Must avoid “conflicts of interest”

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or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Ethical Guidelines for Health Care Providers

• Disaster response and emergency

preparedness

– Care of sick and injured is primary concern

– Providers should consider seeking training in emergency preparedness and disaster response

Ethical Guidelines for Health Care Providers

• Treatment for culturally diverse clientele

– Same quality of care to all patients regardless of race or ethnicity

– Eliminate biased behavior toward any individuals different from themselves

– Encourage diversity when hiring

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Ethical Guidelines for Health Care Providers

• Care of the poor

– Should be regular part of every provider’s practice– Encouraged to take certain number of patients on reduced-cost basis or provide free services

– Volunteer their time to lobbying and being

advocates for those without medical coverage

Ethical Guidelines for Health Care Providers

• Abuse

– Neglect, physical, emotional/psychological/mental injury, sexual

– Child, elder, intimate partner violence (IPV)

– All 50 states mandate reporting of child abuse

– Most states have legislation regarding elder abuse– Reporting abuse of IPV varies by state

• Stalking: reportable crime in some states

• Rape: reportable criminal act

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or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Ethical Guidelines for Health Care Providers

• Abuse

– Protect and care for the abused

– Treat abuser as victim also

– Provide safe environment for abused seeking treatment

– Seek treatment for abuser and abused

• Allocation of scarce medical resources

– 2011: 59 million people without health insurance coverage

– Health Care Reform Act of 2010

– Hispanic and non-Hispanic black children more likely to have no health care

– Elderly have difficulty finding providers who take new Medicare patients

– Macroallocation and microallocation

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• HIV and AIDS

– Confidentiality must be safely guarded

– Unethical to deny treatment to individuals because they test positive for HIV

– If patient refuses to notify person at risk,

authorities can be contacted

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or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

• Abortion and fetal tissue research

– Constant court challenge to validity of

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Bioethics

• Abortion and fetal tissue research

– Use of fetal tissue to benefit patients with

Bioethics

• Genetic engineering/manipulation

– Used in diagnosis of disease, production of medicines, forensic documentation, research– May be able to create custom-made organs to replace those that are defective or diseased– Where does cloning stop?

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or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Bioethics

• Dying and death

– Patients making more choices

– Examples seen in Karen Ann Quinlan and Terri Schiavo cases

– Physician-assisted suicide legislation in Oregon– Other states considering similar action

– Quality-of-life issue

Bioethics

• Hospice

– Make patients comfortable and as free from pain

as possible and allow them dignity in their deaths– Death treated as natural end-of-life experience– Death neither hastened nor prevented

– Often covered by insurance and less expensive than inpatient hospital care