Physicians

In response to healthcare reform, terms such as “physician alignment strategies” and “physician integration” have resurfaced in our vocabulary as healthcare providers.  In our new healthcare environment, many experts advocate that only hospitals that are aligned, or integrated, with their physician providers will be able to organize delivery systems that are capable of meeting current and future demands for efficiency, quality, price and services expected from patients and payers.  As the demands on health care providers continue to escalate, will experts also someday advocate that only hospitals that are aligned with other hospitals, or other health systems, be positioned to meet the then-current and future expectations related to providing high-quality and cost-efficient health care?

As the future of hospital and physician alignment strategies continue to evolve, more physicians, hospitals and health systems are affiliating.  Even large organizations such hospitals and health systems are teaming together to form loose associations in order to better manage the demands for efficiency, quality, price and service being thrust upon all providers by health reform, payers and patients.

There are a number of recent examples of health systems and hospitals forming strategic alignments to better manage healthcare costs and patient care. 

Adoption of EHR technologies has greatly increased as the result of the EHR Incentive Program. Touted as one of the necessary building blocks for creating integrated delivery systems, EHR is considered vital to improve health quality, efficiency and patient safety.  The EHR Incentive Program has been very successful and CMS has awarded over $10…

Recent national tragedies have refocused the nation on an important question:

Can or should a physician face civil liability for failing to warn of the dangers posed by a patient who later commits violence?

Husch Blackwell attorneys Greg Minana and Justin Stephens addressed this question under Missouri law in an article published in the May/June issue of Missouri Medicine.   In…

Are you still trying to understand the changes made in the HIPAA Omnibus Rule?

Do you want an opportunity to ask questions and hear how other providers are handing HIPAA issues?

Do you need a chance to brush up on your HIPAA knowledge and evaluate current strategies? 

If so, then you should consider attending one…

Are healthcare providers at your facility texting patient information to each other?  This type of communication is becoming more and more common, but such text messages are often in violation of HIPAA.  To address this issue, Sprint announced last week that it is now offering two texting products that provide the proper security for PHI…

On June 14ththe Governor signed into law SB 1803. It amends Chapter 531 by limiting the Texas Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (HHSC-OIG) ability to implement payment holds, improving providers’ rights to expedited appeals before the State Office of Administrative Hearings, redefining the liability for hearing costs, creating new requirements…

A trademark audit is at its most basic an asset inventory.  But instead of tracking down and counting blood pressure monitors, otoscopes and scalpels you are tracking down words, phrases and pictures (logos) that you are using to promote your business to the public. And instead of checking and noting the condition of these items and culling out those that are beyond repair or use, your trademark auditor will review how the marks are being used to be sure such use is proper and all of these marks have been searched and cleared for use. It may also find that you are using marks that no longer conform to your desired public image or Mission Statement and that such marks need to be retired.

A trademark audit should do more than just look at the marks that the business believes it owns.  A trademark audit should look at all of the company’s materials that are presented to the public and  review them for any words, phrases and pictures (logos) that are used to identify your company’s goods and services. A trademark audit will often identify terms that the auditor views as trademarks that the company may not realize it is using.  You might wonder – how can a company not know it is using a particular trademark?  This could be because marketing designed and distributed a flyer or brochure but did not review the terms being used – possibly due to a short deadline or perhaps they thought it would only be used “once”.  The audit may also identify terms that have been used for a long time that have simply fallen through the cracks.

Harvey Tettlebaum, a Husch Blackwell attorney specializing in healthcare law with an emphasis in post-acute care, contributed an article to the June 2013 issue of the Journal of Health & Life Sciences Law titled “Quality Measurements, Payment, and the Law: Disincentives to Physician-Patient Discussions of End-of-Life Care.”  Here is the abstract of the article.

With …

A trademark is an adjective.  It is not a noun or a verb.  Why?  Because, a trademark’s purpose is to identify the source or origin of a product, NOT to identify the product itself.  You have gone to great lengths to find a mark that is not descriptive of your product, and we have discussed that generic marks can never be a trademark, so you do not now want to use your mark in such a way that you cause to become descriptive or generic.

This tends to be more a problem for the company coming out with a first-of-its-kind product.  Consumers are already unsure what the product is, and without careful marketing that new moving stairway becomes an “escalator” (originally a trademark of Otis Elevator Company); all coin operated laundries become “laundromats” (originally a trademark of Westinghouse); and all rolling toys on a string are now “yo-yos” (although still a trademark in Canada).

Newer situations that almost resulted in a successful brand name becoming the generic term for the product itself include “KLEENEX® brand tissues;” “Band-Aid® brand bandages” and “Rollerblade ® brand in-line skates.”  Yes, you want your brand to be successful; however, not to the point where it becomes synonymous with the product itself.

The mark has been chosen, the trademark search was clear, and it has been decided that the mark should be registered. The next step in the process is straightforward – file an intent to use (ITU) trademark application.

It is not necessary or recommended to wait until the mark has been used to file the application.    An application can be filed based on your bone fide intent to use the mark in the future.  The application will not register until after use begins. Once use begins, a separate statement is filed claiming this use. After the application is approved by the Examiner and has been published for opposition, a Notice of Allowance will issue.  The applicant then has 6 months to file either a statement of use, or to request a 6-month extension of time.  A total of 5 extensions of time can be requested – up to a total of 3 years after the date the Notice of Allowance issues. If use has not begun after the expiration of the 5th extension of time, the application will abandon as a matter of law.

The benefit of filing an ITU application is that once use begins and the application is registered the owner can claim a constructive date of first use as of the filing date of the application.  This could add months or years to the start date of your rights. There are some additional costs and filing fees associated with the filing of the use statement and/or extensions of time to file the use statement; however these are offset by the right to claim an earlier starting point for your rights.

After choosing the mark itself, an important part of the registration process is crafting the identification of goods or services.  You want the identification to be both broad and specific.  If the mark will be used as an overall mark for your entire organization, the identification may be straightforward “hospitals and medical services.” If the mark will be used for a specialized service offering, it may be necessary to develop a more specific identification.