Physicians and practice administrators often find themselves with legal questions, such as how long they have to keep patients’ medical records. Fortunately, our members can turn to the Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED) for answers and help.
PAMED‘s legal briefs, written by our general legal counsel, provide member physicians and their staffs with free educational information and resources on a variety of issues.
Legal briefs available to members are:
- Medical records and other protected health information
- Patient rights–Right of patients to inspect and copy their medical records, limit of copying fees and other charges, and more.
- Security–HIPAA security rule, notice of security breaches, and sample security breach forms
- Confidentiality–HIPAA privacy rule, state licensing regulations, super-protected information, and sample privacy forms
- Retention–Content, alteration, retention, and disposal requirements and example disposal documentation form
- Restrictions on copying charges–Chart showing the maximum charges allowed by state law
- Providing medical care to a minor patient–Basic principles for consent and confidentiality, state statutory exemptions to parental consent, and sample model medical consent authorization
- Reporting requirements
- Child abuse – Definition of child abuse, reporting procedures, compliance protection, penalties for violation, and more
- Disease control and prevention – Reporting of communicable diseases and other conditions, prenatal examination for syphilis, contact information for health district offices and health centers, and more
- Injuries by a deadly weapon or criminal act–Key definitions, reporting process, compliance protection, and penalties for violation
- Self-reporting–Definition of reportable events, timing and content requirements of a report, penalties for failure to self-report, sample reporting form, and more
- Physician-patient relationship–Restrictions on physician choice of patients, starting and ending the physician-patient relationship, sample letter for terminating a patient, and sample letter announcing a physician’s retirement to a patient
- Medical liability
- Out of state plaintiff’s attorneys
- Trial bifurcation
- Directed-referral requirements–Provides general legal information on directed referral requirements, including a synopsis of some of the major legal issues and information on the fraud and abuse laws and antitrust laws.
Each legal brief contains a list of additional resources on the topic, and many contain frequently asked questions and their answers. Members also may contact PAMED at (800) 228-7823, ext. 2644, for general information about laws and regulations affecting medical practice.