Legal Aspects of Healthcare Module

Legal Aspects of Healthcare
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Dr. Robert Stokes was a medical practitioner (dermatologist) at Grand Rapids, Michigan and was a certified dermatologist. It was in 2001, the federal agents investigated him after he was suspected of billing medical insurers and outpatients on higher charges than the previous procedures he had performed. According to the investigations, it was found out that he was involved in malpractices and incrimination. Stokes was found guilty of billing simple surgical procedures like they were complicated procedures and with more costly charges. Stokes was also accused of billing clients when they visited the office and on surgery the same day, a practice which was not upheld by insurers. Stokes also recycled medical instruments like syringes, gloves, scalpels among others without first sterilizing them. Medical health practitioners should maintain a professional relationship between the doctor and the patient (doctor-patient relationship). The doctor is obliged to devote his efforts towards the patients’ well-being at all times. The doctor should act professionally, guided by professional and ethical principles which promote positive interest of the patient. Stokes admitted of using one instrument on multiple patients which was very unethical. Although he claimed that he placed the instruments in a sterilizing solution that claimed solution was not standardized. Official statement from the investigation stated that Dr. Stokes used traditional methods of sterilization which were not in use since 1994. The Kent health department of the county found him guilty of mishandling patients. This consequently led to the closure of his office.
The actual charges on Dr. Stokes was on health care fraud (31 in number) and allegedly creating undesirable surgical operations and overbilling the patients (Stokes, 2013). Before the judgment day, the government declared its intentions to use evidence from audit. This was categorized in two; letters from insurers on billing and testimonies from affected clients. The court declined his request not to include the audit so as to ensure that the jury did not make improperly use the audit. The Kent department assessed how the risk of performing surgery with the already used instruments had an adverse effect on the patients. The patients were also at risk of contacting the viruses through the body fluids. Some of these viruses include Hepatitis C virus, Hepatitis B virus and HIV/AIDS.
Dr. Stokes was punished with ten years and six months imprisonment but this was later changed to a decade after the judge, Grand Rapids re-sen...