CPHRM Legal Issues 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a hospital's obligation to a qualified individual with a disability includes:
- Providing any accommodation the patient requests regardless of cost
- Making reasonable accommodations unless they impose an undue hardship (Correct answer)
- Assigning a dedicated care team to all patients with disabilities
- Exemption from standard informed consent procedures
Correct answer: Making reasonable accommodations unless they impose an undue hardship
The ADA requires reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities, but not accommodations that would impose an undue hardship on the organization.
Question 2: The National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) must be queried by hospitals:
- Only when a physician applies for initial privileges
- At initial credentialing and at least every two years for all practitioners with clinical privileges (Correct answer)
- Only after a malpractice judgment is entered
- Whenever a patient complaint is received
Correct answer: At initial credentialing and at least every two years for all practitioners with clinical privileges
Hospitals must query the NPDB when practitioners apply for clinical privileges and at least every two years for currently privileged practitioners (the continuous query option satisfies this).
Question 3: A statute of limitations in medical malpractice defines:
- The maximum dollar amount a plaintiff may recover
- The timeframe within which a plaintiff must file a lawsuit (Correct answer)
- The number of expert witnesses allowed per case
- The hospital's liability cap under state law
Correct answer: The timeframe within which a plaintiff must file a lawsuit
A statute of limitations sets the deadline by which a plaintiff must file a medical malpractice claim or be barred from bringing the lawsuit.
Question 4: Corporate negligence holds a hospital directly liable when it fails to:
- Purchase adequate malpractice insurance
- Ensure appropriate care through proper credentialing, supervision, and safe facilities (Correct answer)
- Disclose all adverse events to patients
- Maintain HIPAA-compliant electronic records
Correct answer: Ensure appropriate care through proper credentialing, supervision, and safe facilities
The doctrine of corporate negligence imposes a direct duty on hospitals to maintain safe facilities, select competent staff, oversee patient care, and implement proper policies.
Question 5: When a risk manager receives a litigation hold notice, the correct response is to:
- Shred documents older than the retention policy requires
- Immediately preserve all potentially relevant records and suspend routine destruction (Correct answer)
- Forward all records to the hospital's insurer only
- Continue normal document retention and destruction schedules
Correct answer: Immediately preserve all potentially relevant records and suspend routine destruction
A litigation hold requires immediate preservation of all potentially relevant documents and suspension of any routine destruction that might affect those materials.
Question 6: Which concept describes a hospital being held liable for a patient's injury caused by an independent contractor physician based on the patient's reasonable belief that the physician was a hospital employee?
- Respondeat superior
- Corporate negligence
- Ostensible (apparent) agency (Correct answer)
- Contributory negligence
Correct answer: Ostensible (apparent) agency
Ostensible or apparent agency holds hospitals liable when patients reasonably believe an independent contractor physician is a hospital employee, such as when the hospital holds out the physician as its agent.
Question 7: The Stark Law (Physician Self-Referral Law) prohibits a physician from referring Medicare patients for designated health services to an entity in which the physician has:
- Any patient care relationship
- A financial relationship, unless a specific exception applies (Correct answer)
- Privileges but not employment
- A malpractice history
Correct answer: A financial relationship, unless a specific exception applies
The Stark Law prohibits physician self-referrals for designated health services when a financial relationship exists between the physician and the entity, with limited statutory and regulatory exceptions.
CPHRM Legal Issues 4
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a hospital's obligation to a qualified individual with a disability includes: