Ethical Issues in Physician Billing Under Fee-For-Service Plans

Author(s):  
Joseph Heath

Abstract Medical ethics has become an important and recognized component of physician training. There is one area, however, in which medical students receive little guidance. There is practically no discussion of the financial aspects of medical practice. My objective in this paper is to initiate a discussion about the moral dimension of physician billing practices. I argue that physicians should expand their conception of professional responsibility in order to recognize that their moral obligations toward patients include a commitment to honest and forthright billing practices. I argue that physicians should aspire to a standard of clinical accuracy—not legal adequacy—in describing their activities. More generally, physicians should strive to promote an integrity-based professional culture, first and foremost by stigmatizing rather than celebrating creative billing practices, as well as condemning the misguided sense of solidarity that currently makes it taboo for physicians to criticize each other on this score.

2020 ◽  
pp. 117-121
Author(s):  
І. І. Vorona ◽  
I. A. Prokop

The paper points out the specifics of medical students’ professional culture formation, analyses its components and conditions. The experience of virtual training programme use in Latin classes for medical students is summarized. Development of professional culture is sure to enrich the man’s inner world, as well as to contribute to his (her) professional development and personal self-improvement. Any person reveals himself (herself) most vividly while interacting with the others in performing professional duties, the outcomes often depending on the proper conduct, speaking, hearing, and language.     Training of future medical professionals is an element of professional education and is aimed at providing specialists with a certain level of professional skills alongside with the formation of proper professional qualities and development of general personal culture. Medical educational institutions are supposed to provide future specialists with adequate amount of knowledge, necessary for the work in their field and to make them aware of their professional perspectives and able to influence the process actively and effectively. It is in this aspect that the professional culture is involved, that is demeanour, speaking, hearing, and language matching the generally accepted standards and principles, primarily moral, and the requirements set to the particular profession. Professional culture of the future medical workers is not the sum of professional knowledge, abilities, and skills only, but a part of general spiritual culture that manifests itself in professional competence, readiness for analysis and evaluation of professional and ethical issues, decision-making, communicative skills, as well as conscious striving for self-education, self-development, and constant professional self-perfection. Formation of medical students’ professional culture is a “teacher-student” indissoluble connection based on humanism, creative activity, and common search for new goals and tasks, which increase future specialists’ motivation to attain new peaks in the professional activity. 


2015 ◽  
Vol 06 (01) ◽  
pp. 75-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.L. Pantaleoni ◽  
C.A. Longhurst ◽  
L.A. Stevens

SummaryEffective physician training is an essential aspect of EMR implementation. However, it can be challenging to find instructors who can present the material in a clinically relevant manner. The authors describe a unique physician-training program, utilizing medical students as course instructors. This approach resulted in high learner satisfaction rates and provided significant cost-savings compared to alternative options.Citation: Stevens LA, Pantaleoni JL, Longhurst CA. The value of clinical teachers for EMR implementations and conversions. Appl Clin Inf 2015; 6: 75–79http://dx.doi.org/10.4338/ACI-2014-09-IE-0075


BMJ Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. e021310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin N Stienen ◽  
Felix Scholtes ◽  
Robin Samuel ◽  
Alexander Weil ◽  
Astrid Weyerbrock ◽  
...  

ObjectivesMedical practice may attract and possibly enhance distinct personality profiles. We set out to describe the personality profiles of surgical and medical specialties focusing on board-certified physicians.DesignProspective, observational.SettingOnline survey containing the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI), an internationally validated measure of the Five Factor Model of personality dimensions, distributed to board-certified physicians, residents and medical students in several European countries and Canada. Differences in personality profiles were analysed using multivariate analysis of variance and Canonical Linear Discriminant Analysis on age-standardised and sex-standardised z-scores of the personality traits. Single personality traits were analysed using robust t-tests.ParticipantsThe TIPI was completed by 2345 board-certified physicians, 1453 residents and 1350 medical students, who also provided demographic information.ResultsNormal population and board-certified physicians’ personality profiles differed (p<0.001). The latter scored higher on conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness, but lower on neuroticism (all p<0.001). There was no difference in openness to experience. Board-certified surgical and medical doctors’ personality profiles were also different (p<0.001). Surgeons scored higher on extraversion (p=0.003) and openness to experience (p=0.002), but lower on neuroticism (p<0.001). There was no difference in agreeableness and conscientiousness. These differences in personality profiles were reproduced at other levels of training, that is, in students and training physicians engaging in surgical versus medical practice.ConclusionThese results indicate the existence of a distinct and consistent average ‘physician personality’. Despite high variability within disciplines, there are moderate but solid and reproducible differences between surgical and medical specialties.


2020 ◽  
pp. 197-214
Author(s):  
Ben Vincent

The conclusion considers what systemic improvements may be made to queer communities and medical provisions, to allow the heterogeneity of non-binary identifying people to feel legitimised in their identities, and have equal access and experience of services. One of the most fundamental recommendations for medical practice that can be made is inspired by those communities that non-binary people expressed affinity with, such as bisexual and kink communities. Such spaces were sensitive and reflexive to gender plurality, and tended to construct language and space to be more fully inclusive. Gendered assumptions rooted in cisnormativity should be challenged within medical practice. Practices in gendered medicine may be similarly adjusted at the administrative level to improve preventative health screening for trans individuals. Much of this may be attained initially through the provision of training to both medical students and existent medical staff and administrators. This is followed by a critical reflection on gender affirming medical services, whereby the impact of a shift to an informed-consent focused model is considered. In order to optimise such recommendations, the limitations of this study and future necessary directions of enquiry are then addressed. This includes final methodological reflections and intersectional factors – such as the limited classed and racial diversity of the participants.


Author(s):  
Georgina Fozard ◽  
Philippa Greenfield

Training in psychiatry involves a fascinating and rewarding journey, and is a wonderful career for women. This chapter explores what it means to be a female psychiatric trainee. The authors discuss the recruitment crisis within psychiatry and the way that stigma and financial pressures upon the NHS compound this. They discuss their own experiences as medical students interested in psychiatry, particularly with regard to overcoming prejudices within the wider medical profession. There are certain challenges that are particular to training in psychiatry that women trainees face, including everyday sexism and how it impacts on self-esteem, as well as exposure to violence and stalking, and the effect of social media on medical practice. The authors discuss their own experiences in facing these challenges, what more could be done to support trainees, and they consider the importance of self-care and the way in which training as a psychiatrist can give trainees particular skills of self-reflection and insights into group dynamics that can be invaluable in developing as medical leaders.


2013 ◽  
Vol 95 (7) ◽  
pp. 235-235
Author(s):  
Anca Wade ◽  
Jonathan Beard

The quality of medical practice and the safety of patients are crucially dependent on the quality of the training provided to medical students and trainees. This may sound obvious, but is something that we need to remind ourselves of every day, and consider what it means in our day-to-day practice. As winston Churchill famously said: 'To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often'. A huge challenge, maybe, but a challenge to which need to face and respond.


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