I attended a full day health law conference sponsored by the Indiana State Bar Association today. It was a nice conference with alot of good content. However I wish there was a State Bar Association conference focusing on the law and the issues nurses and other healthcare professionals face in healthcare. Most of the content at the conference today focused of course on hospitals, healthcare systems, and physicians.
Legal issues facing physicians including fraud abuse, medical staff credentialing, disruptive practitioners, DEA licenses, reimbursement, third party payors, employment contracts, medical mapractice, tort reform, and federal and state regulatory issues are big money and high dollar for law firms who work with hospitals, healthcare systems, and physician groups.
Nurses and other licensed healthcare professionals and paraprofessionals are usually not the subject of these types of conferences sponsored by State Bar Associations. I actually attended today because one of my goals is to attend state specific CLE in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana focusing on health law or administrative law and there was a session on the basics of licensure defense for healthcare professionals in Indiana. I soon found out the rationale was because more physicians in Indiana are being reported to the Indiana Medical Board after an adverse finding by the medical malpractice panel in Indiana.
The ABA has an annual conference which focuses on legal issues facing physicians. I am still waiting for the ABA conference focusing on legal issues facing nurses and other licensed healthcare professionals. I may juggle my schedule to attend the American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants conference in Pittsburgh, PA because this of course will be legal and nursing-related content. I will also attend one of the NCSBN conferences this year because these conferences focus on the legal regulation of nursing practice. I will attend the Ohio State Bar Association administrative law conference in July this year because there is always good content on the legal regulation and licensing issues involving healthcare professionals.
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