Practice Management News and Education

On April 30, 2018, the California Supreme Court issued a decision entitled Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. The Superior Court of Los Angeles County (Charles Lee), which evaluated whether workers in California should be classified as employees or as independent contractors for purposes of California wage orders.

Through our extensive range of practice management benefits, CAP is committed to helping our members tackle some of the scarier aspects of running a business. The following are some scary practice scenarios you might be facing, and solutions to address them.

Research shows that communication and early resolution programs, such as Stanford’s PEARL Program and COPIC Insurance Company’s 3Rs Program, have been successful in helping both patients and providers during the stressful time after an adverse event.

Recently CAP has partnered with Hippocratic Financial Advisors and many of our members have utilized Ravi's services and we feel that they're a great resource for our members.

So far this year, business associate breaches account for roughly 12 percent of the total breaches reported to the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), or 27 of the 233 reported breaches as of September 19. What does this mean to a covered entity? It means that it’s not enough to require a signed Business Associate Agreement (BAA). Vendors should be diligently vetted.

If you know any employed physician colleagues or residents who may be interested in starting their own practice, we have recently published a comprehensive how-to guide to ease the process: The Physician’s Action Guide to Starting Your Own Practice.

If you are contemplating a change in your practice, please notify CAP as soon as possible so our Membership Services Department can review your options with you and make your coverage transition a smooth one.

You probably know that as a CAP member, you get far more than just superior medical liability protection. But many physician members and their staff are still not aware of the full breadth of free and discounted benefits we make available through our CAPAdvantage program. 

Patients come in many shapes and sizes, and so do their complaints, from the ridiculous to the serious. We frequently hear about these on the CAP Hotline, so we’re doing a short story on the subject.  For our purposes, we’ll call complaints as those coming directly from patients in either written or oral form. Grievances, on the other hand, are those from the patient’s healthcare plan, which all have a grievance management program.

We wanted to inform you that Risk E-Notes is being replaced by a new monthly digest, Patient Safety Advocate. As you know, Risk E Notes is a bimonthly email newsletter published by CAP’s Risk Management and Patient Safety Newsletter. Risk E-Notes has been written for independent physicians and their office staff. We know how busy you are and we know how difficult it is to keep up with the latest risk management news and trends.