Various committees can constitute a Health Care Organization. These may include the Health Care Community committees and ethics committees. The professional body is mainly concerned with the concerns of the workers. The ethics body on the other hand is mainly involved in the individual patient rights develops code for clinicians and improvement of human relations. (Edward Spencer and Ann E.).
In a Health Care Organization the issue of ethics is very much relevant for a practicing physician. This is so because anything that is done by a medical practitioner touches on ethics. The first responsibility of an ethics committee is to help a medical doctor when he or she is unable to solve ethical issues personally. One of the functions of a medical ethical committee is that of clarifying medical facts.
This especially happens when a physician is faced with life sustaining issues or there is a disagreement about the care being given to a patient between the physician and the family of the patient. An ethics committees constitute people from different professions; physicians, clergymen, nurses and community representatives. The committee comes in to help the physicians, patients and family members to comprehend what ethical foundations and options are.
An ethics committee is involved in conflict resolution between the patient/family and the medical doctor. Conflict appears when there is communication breakdown between the patient/family and the doctor. Some of the issues that could lead to conflicts include a situation in which a patient health insurer does not cover for the required treatment.(Christopher Guadagnino 1996). In addition the ethics committee is involved in explaining contractual relations to the medical doctors. (Edward Spencer and Ann E.).
This body also tries to accomplish the provision of high quality medical care with professional oversight and increasing the duration of time employers are involved in the medical care provided to patients This body is also charged with the responsibility of checking and reducing incidences of fraudulent claims in HCO.( Edgar Online 2009).
The second is the Health Care Community Committee. It is charged with the responsibility of bringing together senior staff members of health care organizations in a community to tackle such issues as education, networking and knowledge needs of its members. In addition the committee offers networking opportunities to its members. It distributes the most recent trends that implicate management of healthcare to its members. It also operates listserv and recommends educational programs to its members. (ASAE & The center for Association Leadership 2009). Health Care Community committees brainstorm on the challenges in the Health care and how to resolve them. (California Academy of Family Physicians 2009).
Some of the legal issues to consider include the scale of independence necessary between an HCO’s medical case management and utilization review functions and an insurer, self-insured employer, or Thirty Party Administrator that contracts with the HCO. (Bulletin, 2002). Other legal issues include tax exemption, Anti kickback issues that involve the Federal government and the state and finally the Stark Law and State Anti- Self Referral law issues.
On the other hand there are some situations where the HCO policies conflict with societal ideals. Some of the ethical issues that impact on policymaking include; cases where the clinicians fail to follow the code of conduct of medical practitioners. In some instances HCO is faced with professional dilemmas and conflicts. Some patients and their families conflict with the professional doctors. These conflicts occur because the doctors are sometimes bound by the contract that they have signed with their employers not to reveal some information to the patient or his/her family.
References
ASAE & The center for Association Leadership 2009. Committee Descriptions. Web.
Bulletin. 2002. DWC Notes HCO Growth, Clarifies Issues Regarding the Program. Web.
California Academy of Family Physicians. 2009. Family Physicians Hold Health Care Community Meetings. Web.
Edgar Online 2009. Pacific Health Care Organization. Web.
Edward M. Spencer, Ann E. Organization Ethics in Health Care. Web.
Christopher Guadagnino 1996 The role of medical ethics committees. Web.