FAQ: Do service dogs have to be accommodated in a physician's office? Physicians are asked to accommodate service dogs in their offices with increasing frequency. The law generally requires a place of public accommodation, like a physician's office, to permit service dogs where customers would normally be allowed so long as providing the accommodation is reasonable and necessary. However, what constitutes a service dog is not always obvious as many people also have companion animals or emotional support animals they wish to bring. The law does not require companion animals to be accommodated in the same way as service animals. To help distinguish, a service animal must be one that is individually trained to provide assistance to a person with a disability. Although service animals are required to have identification tags identifying them as service animals, the law does not require a service animal to have completed a certain requisite training or examination. A person with a mental disability may have either a psychiatric service animal or a companion animal. A psychiatric service animal must be accommodated by law, whereas the companion animal need not be. To qualify as a psychiatric service animal, the animal must not only recognize a problem, but must be trained to respond to that problem. To determine whether an animal is truly a service animal, physicians may ask what task the animal is trained to perform and whether it is required for a disability. But physicians should avoid asking about the nature and extent of the person's disability and may not request further documentation of the dog's certification or training. Determining whether an animal is truly a service animal can be a blurry line. Physicians should exercise extreme caution and consult with a personal attorney or their professional liability carriers where appropriate. To learn more about the intricacies of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the accommodation of service animals see CMA On-Call document #6002, "Disabled Patients: Health Care Services." This document, as well as the rest of the California Medical Association's online health law library, is available free to members in CMA's online resource library. Nonmembers can purchase documents for $2 per page. Contact: CMA Legal Information Line, (800) 786-4262 or legalinfo@cmanet.org. July 15, 2014 General ADA/Discrimination, Disabilities, Access to Care, Legal Issues 0 0 Comment Read More »
Act now to protect yourself under the Physician Payment Sunshine Act By taking four easy steps now, you can make sure you're prepared when it's time to review your 2013 financial data before it's published online later this year. Under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, drug and medical device manufacturers started tracking their financial interactions with licensed physicians – including consulting fees, travel reimbursements, research grants and other gifts – beginning Aug. 1, 2013. Any payments, ownership interests and other “transfers of value” will be reported to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for publication in an online database to be launched in the fall of 2014. Here are four easy steps you can take now to support the accuracy of this data: 1. Make sure your disclosures are up to date. Financial and conflict-of-interest disclosures required by employers, advisory bodies and entities funding research should be updated regularly so it is consistent with the data that eventually will be publicly reported under the Sunshine Act. 2. Confirm that your National Provider Identifier (NPI) information is current. The information tied to your NPI, including your specialty, must be accurate to help ensure appropriate attribution of payments and other transfers of value that will be listed in CMS's online database. 3. Request ongoing notification from your industry contacts about the data they report to CMS. Ask your representatives at the manufacturers and group purchasing organizations with which you interact to give you an opportunity to review and correct information they intend to submit before they transmit it to CMS. The 2013 data is due March 31. 4. Track your payments and financial transfers. Download a free smartphone app to track reportable transfers. "Open Payments Mobile for Physicians" is available through the Apple Store and Google Play® Store. A number of security features protect the privacy of the data you capture, which will be stored on one device and cannot be backed up to a cloud or other devices. Also urge your industry contacts to use the app so you will be able to capture the information you need to ensure accurate reporting. Visit the AMA Sunshine Act physician toolkit to learn more about the law's timeline, the kinds of financial interactions that must be reported and the process to challenge false, inaccurate or misleading reports. January 6, 2014 General Physician Payment Sunshine Act, Legal Issues 0 0 Comment Read More »
Medical board says it is not responsible for 'daily deal marketing cease and desist' letters sent to physicians The Medical Board of California issued a statement last week that it did not author a letter apparently coming from its Discipline Coordination Unit warning physicians to immediately "cease and desist " from conducting any daily deal marketing arrangements with sites such as Groupon, Living Social and Amazon. A number of California physicians have called the medical board stating that they have received these letters dated November 6, 2013, on the medical board’s masthead. These letters are fraudulent and were not generated by the medical board. When the medical board receives any complaint regarding a physician—including the use of daily deal marketing or internet-based coupon sites—the complaints are evaluated on a case-by-case basis to determine whether there is a violation of the law. Physicians should, however, use caution when using such sites. While each deal varies, typically the physician agrees to give the coupon company a percentage of the revenue obtained from patients using the coupon (reports suggest as high as 50 percent) in return for the marketing company's promotion of the practice through various types of coupons or "daily deals." Even if patients using such coupons are cash-paying and non-insured, the activity raises significant legal issues for physicians. Accordingly, physicians should act with extreme caution in this area, after obtaining the advice of an attorney experienced in health care fraud and abuse laws. For more information, see CMA On-Call document #0104, "Practice Promotion through Third Party Coupons." On-Call documents are available free to members in CMA's online health law library at www.cmanet.org/cma-on-call. Nonmembers can purchase documents for $2/page. If you receive a cease and desist letter and wish to verify its authenticity, please contact the medical board at (916) 263-2528. December 4, 2013 General Marketing/Advertising, Legal Issues, MBC, Medical Board of California, Professional Development and Licensure 0 0 Comment Read More »
