Health care laws are designed to protect patients, and health care businesses are tasked with keeping up with new laws and their nuances in order to remain compliant.
Ignorance is never a defense, but it is not easy to keep up with liability law in Florida, especially in the healthcare industry.
For this reason, many healthcare-related businesses reach out to Florida Healthcare Law Firm for support.
Healthcare Law and Criminal Liability for Patient Care
There are a number of reasons why a healthcare business might be in danger of criminal liability, and medical malpractice is one of the big ones. This can include charges for:
- Negligent medical care that caused harm or death to a patient.
- Giving medical services or medication to a patient without gaining their consent first.
- Practicing medicine without a license or otherwise providing services beyond the certification scope.
- Breaking HIPAA laws by violating patient confidentiality.
- Having a romantic or sexual relationship with a patient.
- Prescribing too much of an addictive medication or prescribing abusable medication without medical necessity.
- Providing medical services that are illegal at the state or federal level.
- Assisting any patient in ending their life.
Criminal Liability Is Possible for Health Care Fraud
Medicare fraud is one of the most common types of fraud and a primary reason for criminal liability complaints across the healthcare industry. In fact, any kind of billing fraud is grounds for a criminal offense.
Billing fraud can mean:
- Accepting payment or favors for using certain medical products or prescriptions.
- Billing for medical care that was not provided.
- Double billing for medical care claims.
- Billing for services that were not medically necessary.
- Billing using a medical code that is more expensive than the actual amount of services provided.
Health Care Law Can Lead to Liability
The law is set up to protect patients, as it should. But, without knowledge of what current law requires, many healthcare businesses are at risk of criminal liability.
One of the best ways to protect against surprise lawsuits is to hire a healthcare law firm to assist your business in:
- Assessing current software, forms, and records to ensure that there are no concerns in day-to-day practices.
- Updating protocol if there are any issues that require attention.
- Keeping up with changes to existing law and recommending adjustments to procedures as needed.
- Staying current on new laws as they are introduced, voted on, passed, and put into effect, and creating plans to stay in compliance.
If you have a healthcare business in Florida, whether or not you work directly with patients, it is imperative to ensure that you remain in compliance with Florida law. Contact us at Florida Healthcare Law Firm today to find out how we can assist you in this process.
