DEA Announces Proposed Telemedicine Rule Change for Controlled Substances
On 2/24/23 the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) announced a proposal for permanent rule changes to the Ryan Haight Act that will allow for the prescription of controlled substances through telemedicine, under certain circumstances, after the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) expires on May 11, 2023. The Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008 requires prescribers conduct an in-person examination to evaluate each patient at least once before prescribing a controlled substance, even if a patient has already been taking the medication in question. During the PHE, the in-person requirement was changed to allow prescribers to perform...
As violence increases across the country, so too have acts of violence against healthcare providers. Unfortunately, this is not a new trend; polls conducted in 2014 and 2020 revealed that 71% of physicians and 82% of nurses reported having been targets of violence at some point in their careers, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that healthcare and social service workers are 5 times as likely to suffer a workplace violence injury than workers overall. Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, this epidemic of violence has continued to worsen. An August 2022 poll conducted by the American...
MIEC has been receiving increasing calls from members who are concerned about patients who have not received a COVID vaccine. Members have expressed concerns regarding the safety of unvaccinated patients, other patients in the practice, and their staff. Some members have expressed an unwillingness to continue treating patients who are either vaccine-hesitant or who have refused to get vaccinated, or they are unwilling to see these patients in their offices. To address this question more broadly, MIEC turned to ECRI, which provided the following recommendations based on a review of clinical and gray literature and ECRI resources. ECRI answers questions...
Most healthcare providers and other business owners know that they must make their physical environment accessible for all members of the public, including those with disabilities, as required under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). However, some may not be aware that accessibility also extends to the virtual environment; websites must also comply with accessibility requirements under the ADA. Recently, MIEC has fielded a number of calls from concerned members regarding how they can comply with accessibility requirements for their websites. Many of these calls have come from the acupuncture community, although this issue exists for all...
Test Result Management Key to Accurate and Timely Diagnosis
The failure to follow up on imaging, test and lab results is a widespread issue that continues to pose challenges to patient safety. As in years past, ECRI Institute named Missed and Delayed Diagnosis as one of its Top 10 Patient Concerns for 2020 and noted that mismanagement of test result have long been a primary contributing factor to errors in diagnosis. Although the complexity of the diagnostic process means that many factors contribute to missed and delayed diagnoses, system factors such as test result management play a significant role. A 10-year analysis of 124,000 medical professional liability cases revealed...