Healthcare

To promote awareness and action throughout the month of October, we at PreCheck have kicked off our very own "Sign Your Name" Campaign. We want employees to show their support and to remember those they've lost, root for those they know who are currently fighting the battle and praise those they know who have won the fight against breast cancer. This is an issue that is very close to our hearts at PreCheck, which is why we are kicking off October with this campaign.

One common misconception among medical staff services departments is the assumption that the state medical license boards proactively discipline physicians with a history of misconduct. After all, don’t most boards require criminal background checks before granting licensure? While this is certainly a valid point, various studies have recently indicated that medical license boards are not very efficient in taking action against physicians with misconduct.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- sometimes known as Obamacare -- has been in effect for a couple of years already and is being implemented in stages, so chances are you’ve already been dealing with some of the provisions.

One of the biggest and most talked-about aspects of the PPACA is the system of health exchanges that states are currently in the process of setting up. Open enrollment begins for these health exchanges this fall, and HR managers can expect a lot of questions from employees about their options.

We began this month by discussing the topic of physician impairment and the call for drug screening standards in healthcare. A comprehensive employee drug screening program is a great tool to mitigate risk and reduce overall costs for your organization. Whether you are reviewing your organization's drug screening policy or starting from scratch, here are five recent articles covering advice for employers, industry reports and survey findings concerning drug testing in the workplace. 

On July 10, 2013, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) announced an upgrade to its Exclusions Search along with the July 2013 List of Excluded Individuals and Entities (LEIE) update. This isn’t the only recent change to this exclusion list. In June 2013, the OIG added new information to the list: the National Provider Identifier, a Waiver, and a Waiver State. With last month’s changes, the OIG released a redesigned exclusions search of the LEIE as well as the upgraded Online Exclusions Database and the LEIE Downloadable Databases. But what do these changes mean for you as an employer?

In our featured article last month we addressed the issue of the importance of performing routine criminal background checks for physicians as a condition of licensure and appointment. We discussed how these checks could play a vital role in ensuring patient and workplace safety, and contribute to improved healthcare outcomes.

An effective license verification and management process can not only ensure patient safety for healthcare organizations, but it can also ensure compliance with accreditation standards and minimize the risk of overpayments. The following are five best practices for effective healthcare license verification and monitoring.

Of the roughly 317 million people living in the United States today, about 12.4 million are arrested every year (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2011). That’s equivalent to almost the entire population of the state of Pennsylvania.

The American Nurses Association has established National Nurses Week as an annual recognition event celebrated from May 6 through May 12, ending on the founder of modern nursing Florence Nightingale’s birthday. This year, PreCheck would like to join the ANA in recognizing the dedication and passion that our nation’s nurses share in positively changing patients’ lives through their work. We salute them and appreciate their hard work and commitment to health care.

Since beginning her career at PreCheck as a Client Account Manager more than ten years ago, Dana Sangerhausen has contributed to an energetic company culture that represents the pinnacle of excellence and adaptability within the healthcare and human resources industry. “I have the privilege of waking up every day knowing that I am a part of something meaningful,” she declares.