The Conflicts of Interest – Ethical Conduct Training for Healthcare Providers will educate healthcare personnel (HCP) on how to prevent conflicts of interest and ethical dilemmas associated with patient care.
Undoubtedly, healthcare is a basic human service. It can impact one’s capability of achieving life goals and avoiding premature death.
Physicians must provide satisfactory care to all patients. Moreover, they have a responsibility to share their knowledge about healthcare services to society.
What You’ll Learn
- Fundamentals of healthcare
- Professionalism and contracts for the delivery of healthcare facilities
- Overview of restrictive covenants in the healthcare system
- Combination of secular and religiously affiliated healthcare organizations
- Overview of fees for healthcare services, non-clinical or administrative services & fee-splitting criteria
Details
Course length: 1 hour.
Languages: American English
Key features: Audio narration, learning activity and post-assessment
ACCME Accreditation
American Medical Compliance is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education to physicians. Our Continuing Medical Education (CME) program is committed to enhancing the knowledge, skills, and professional performance of healthcare providers to improve patient care outcomes. Through high-quality educational activities, we aim to address the identified educational gaps and to support the continuous professional development of our medical community. American Medical Compliance designates this activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits. Physicians should only claim this credit for their complete participation in this activity.
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Physician Stewardship
The primary duty of physicians is to support the well-being of all patients. Therefore, physicians must be responsible when making decisions that will impact the patient. Nevertheless, physicians must manage their healthcare services wisely to ensure that all patients receive the best quality of care.
At this time, this course describes the appropriate duties of physicians that represent responsible stewardship. For example, recommendations must be based on the medical needs of the patient. Additionally, decisions must be supported by scientifically validated evidence.
Conflicts of Interest – Limited Health Resources
Physicians must implement equitable allocation policies to ensure that all patients have proper support. Additionally, physicians should advocate for policies that distribute resources equally among patients. Base allocation policies can be based on factors such as medical conditions and urgency of need. If resources are extremely limited, the amount of services needed for a successful treatment must be determined before attempting treatment. Some factors base allocation policies cannot be based on. These include social importance, perceived barriers to care, and patient exposure to disease. Patients who are likely to experience premature death or negative health outcomes should receive priority care. The process to decide which patients receive which resources should be objective and versatile, and should not cause major discrepancies in resources given.
Conflicts of Interest – Financial Limitations
Physicians have an ethical duty to ensure that all patients have access to necessary medical services, despite their financial situation. This course describes some strategies for providing these services.
Physicians can help patients pay for necessary care by referring public or charitable programs. Additionally, healthcare providers can promote access to care on an individual level. For example, when an individual faces a single case of hardship, the physician could waive insurance copayments for that visit. There are also other political ways physicians can help patients with financial limitations.
Primarily, doctors can advocate for reduced financial barriers to medical care. Additionally, doctors and health facilities can work with medical boards and policymakers to ensure that all people have sufficient access to healthcare.
Medical professionals must improve the division of health resources. Also, physicians must work to protect the interests of all patients. Everyone should have adequate access to healthcare services.
Professionalism of Physicians
Physicians must maintain important professional duties such as containing costs and encouraging high-quality care for all patients. The funding, coordination, and enhancement of healthcare quality must be considered.
Doctors are likely to come into contact with ethical problems. These dilemmas weaken doctor confidence, which harms the physician-patient relationship. For example, payment models that use financial incentives can cause conflicts of interest between patients and healthcare providers.
Contracts for Healthcare Facilities
This training describes proper practices when contracting for healthcare services. For example, physicians must closely review the terms of the proposed contract. This will ensure that the agreement has minimal conflicts of interest between the patient and provider. Also, the financial well-being of the physician should not be compromised. Contracts should not contain terms that expose the physician to unnecessary financial risk.
Additionally, physicians should disclose contracted healthcare services to patients. This will help to minimize conflicts of interest as well.
Restrictive Covenants
Competition among physicians is ethically justified under a certain set of factors. These factors include quality of care, expertise, and experience. Physicians should not enter arrangements that unreasonably limit their ability to practice medicine. Additionally, agreements should facilitate fair accommodations for patients with a preference for a physician.
There are also policies on restrictive agreements for physicians in training. Therefore, all members of the healthcare team must remain transparent with one another. Respect for patient and physician autonomy is the foundation of medical ethics.
Retainer Practices
Retainer practices reflect a modern model of treatment. Retainer contracts are a common model physicians use in providing healthcare services. However, physicians must follow certain requirements when entering patient retainer agreements.
For example, the terms of the agreement must be presented explicitly to the patient. Also, the patient must voluntarily decide to approve the retainer practice.
Patients who do not wish to engage in retention must be transferred to a different, appropriate treatment facility. This training discusses transitioning a patient to a new facility in more detail.
Conflicts of Interest – Merger Organizations
Some organizations have a merger between secular and faith-based institutions. There are certain recommendations to minimize conflicts of interest between these institutions. For example, community stakeholders should be consulted when making decisions. This will ensure that the medical programs represent the healthcare needs of the community. Also, the principles of the combined agency should be expressed clearly and consistently.
Fees for Healthcare Services
Physicians must conduct themselves in a trustworthy and responsible manner. They should be competent in providing healthcare services and complying with appropriate laws. Medical service rates must be appropriate and reasonable.
