Trafficking-specific ICD-10-CM codes account for physical, social, and psychological dimensions of trafficked patients’ experiences. Data collected by clinicians can also motivate improvements in health policy, resource allocation, and prevention.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(12):E1143-1151. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.1143.
Government- and industry-funded campaigns for medication disposal do work, but responsibility often falls on local health care organizations to provide education and services.
AMA J Ethics. 2022;24(10):E971-979. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2022.971.
Although not everything on the Choosing Wisely lists is likely to reduce low-value care, it is a good starting point for a conversation about curtailing low-value interventions.
The Department of Health and Human Service's decision to include a religious exemption to its requirement that private health plans cover contraception without patient cost-sharing raises questions about whether such an exemption appropriately balances the needs, beliefs, rights, and obligations of all affected.
Qualifying conscience protections for institutions with requirements that they minimize hardship caused to the patient would prevent religious institutions from acting as a choke point on the path to services.
If employees of religious institutions whose consciences conflict with those of their employers were to be granted legal protection for positive claims of conscience, the religious freedom of institutions within which they work would be gravely compromised.