September 23, 2005
1.
Ohio
Physician Recovers $6,000 From Malpractice Lawyer
An Ohio plaintiff’s lawyer was ordered to pay restitution to an Ohio
physician for frivolous prosecution of a malpractice case. The Ohio
physician alleged that the lawyer refused to dismiss the physician from
the case even after the plaintiff’s expert refused to opine that the
physician failed to meet the standard of care. Barbato v. Khetarpal,
Case No. 2002 CV 01214, Common Pleas Court of Stark County, Ohio.
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2. CMS Announces EHR Beta-Test
CMS has announced a testing program to evaluate Electronic Health
Records (EHR). The system, Vista-Office Electronic Health Record, is an
adaptation of the system used by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).
Physicians interested in being a beta test site can get more information
at http://www.vista-office.org.
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3. HHS Appoints Blue-Ribbon Panel
On Healthcare Information Project
While CMS was announcing its EHR beta test, the Secretary of Health and
Human Services, Michael Leavitt, announced the composition of the
American Health Information Community. You can access the HHS Press
Release at
http://www.hhs.gov.healthit/ahic.html. The purpose of the Community
is to advance President Bush’s HER project. Modern Healthcare reported
in its September 19, 2005 edition that many healthcare information
specialists see the panel as too politicized with insufficient
real-world experience.
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>For more information about the topics presented in this newsletter please contact one of the Healthcare Attorneys:
Read the July 2005 issue of our HEALTHCARE NEWSLETTER.
Tucker Arensberg, P.C.
1500 One PPG Place Pittsburgh, PA 15222 412/566-1212
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