Q: Is it legal for non licensed staff to perform medical duties, including post op procedures without the Dr being present?
The doctor is aware that she performs these major surgery post op procedures and dressing changes. She's not a nurse, PA, MA, ARNP or even a CNA. She also doesn't identify herself as not being a nurse when the patient calls her nurse. Does malpractice insurance cover a non medical staff doing medical procedures? What about going online to Tricare and getting surgery clearance for patients who have not yet seen the doctor? They are entering ICD10 codes based on the new patient referral that they are holding. However the doctor has not seen the patient nor given a diagnosis and ICD10 code to use. Is this fraud?
A: They are covered by malpractice. Whether anything amounts to fraud is more complicated, as much depends on provider agreements, federal regulations. But as long as you need care there your best avenuje would be to tun it anonymously by the Tricare fraud control. But they may not take anonymous information, and you really want to watch what you say as the law is very complicated and what seems like fraud to you may well not be.
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