Earlier this year, Congress passed a spending bill through the process known as reconciliation, which means that the majority party does not need any votes from the minority and the bill is not subject to filibuster in the Senate. The bill was wide-ranging. One of the things it did was change Medicaid eligibility rules in a way that is predicted to result in millions of people losing their Medicaid coverage and the closure of many, mostly rural, small hospitals. The bill also cut the Covid-era subsidies given to people purchasing private insurance in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces. Many
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Emergency Departments: Dangerous Places to Be
Emergency departments see it all. They are almost always busy these days. They may be short on staff or at least not have enough staff and beds to deal with the volume of patients they see. All of this makes them a place where malpractice can more easily occur.
Have what you think might be a medical emergency? Head to the local emergency department. Once there you may find yourself waiting along with many other sick or injured people for a doctor to see you. Not all of the people waiting will have real emergencies. Even among those with real
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The Third Leading Cause of Death in America?
Although reliable figures are hard to come by due to the curtain of secrecy created by the medical industry, one thing is abundantly clear from every study: Too many people are injured and killed by avoidable medical mistakes.
The two leading causes of death in the United States are cardiovascular disease and cancer, in that order. Based on numerous studies, it is likely that the third leading cause of death is medical malpractice.
In 2000, the Institute of Medicine published a groundbreaking study called To Err Is Human. It estimated the annual number of deaths due to avoidable medical
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Elective Plastic Surgery: A Difficult Case to Win
We live in an age when social media tells us we can and should be beautiful forever. Unfortunately, nature has other ideas. As one wag famously said, “Gravity always wins.”
Plastic surgery comes in two primary flavors. The first is reconstructive surgery necessitated by some event, illness or trauma. The second is elective cosmetic surgery. There is a great difference between the two, especially in the way they are treated in court.
Surgery, elective or not, always involves a host of possible problems. Surgical errors are among the most common forms of medical malpractice. Surgical errors can involve surgery on
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The (Sometimes) Fatal Nick
Medicine has made a lot of progress over the last hundred years. One of the areas of improvement has been abdominal surgery. In the bad old days, abdominal surgery meant cutting open the patient’s abdomen. The surgeon could then (hopefully) see what the problem was and address it under direct vision. Today, most abdominal surgeries are done through the use of a laparoscope.
Laparoscopic surgery involves the use of small wands, called trochars, which are inserted into the abdominal cavity. No longer must a patient have a large abdominal scar as a souvenir from surgery. Now only a few, small,
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Differences Between Malpractice Insurance Policies and Other Insurance
Almost all doctors practicing in the United States have malpractice insurance. The few that do not will usually not be allowed to practice at hospitals. The most common reason a doctor does not have malpractice insurance is that no insurance company will have him or her. You do not want to be treated by a doctor who cannot get malpractice insurance.
Malpractice insurance policies differ from the insurance policies you or I may have for our homes and cars. There are three main differences.
Our personal policies are what are called “occurrence policies.” The insurance company’s responsibility is triggered by
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Social Media and Stars: A Poor Way To Select A Lawyer
I have been a trial lawyer now for over 50 years. It has been an interesting, challenging, and rewarding career. I can’t think of anything else I would rather have done. My years of experience have given me a good insight into what it takes to be a good trial lawyer. One thing that is crystal clear is that, regardless of what someone trying to get your business might say, not everyone is a good trial lawyer. In today’s screen-driven world, many people use social media to find a lawyer. When the lawyer you need to find is one to
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Don’t Be A Mushroom
Many of you have no doubt heard the old adage about being treated as a mushroom: Kept in the dark and fed s**t. Don’t let this happen to you when you hire a malpractice lawyer.
One of the most common complaints the State Bar receives from clients about their lawyers is that the lawyer is not communicating with the client. The client does not hear from the lawyer about the progress of the case. The lawyer does not answer emails or return phone calls. The client is frustrated, and with good reason. When a lawyer fails to respond to emails
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What You Don’t Know About Diabetes Can Kill You
I have written that what doctors don’t know about diabetes can kill you. The same goes for what you don’t know. Nearly one in seven Americans is a diabetic. Significantly, almost 25% of those with diabetes are not aware that they are diabetics.
Diabetes can kill. It can kill slowly by gradually damaging the heart, the kidneys, the liver and the circulatory system. It can kill rapidly by causing diabetic ketoacidosis, a potentially fatal condition in which the body’s metabolism gets so far out of balance that it can no longer support life. The key to surviving diabetes is
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Medical Malpractice Cases Are Always Dogfights
There is a question I hear with some frequency, especially when I tell a prospective client that the facts of their medical treatment do not support a malpractice case, “Can’t we just file suit and then settle with them out of court?” Sadly, the answer is a clear “No.” Even when a malpractice case is strong, doctors and hospitals and their insurance companies fight them as though their lives depended on it. That response to suit by the medical providers and their insurance companies is one of the main reasons our justice system is so unfair to injured patients.
Let’s
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Medicare Advantage Taking Advantage – Again
With Medicare Advantage plans, the hits just keep on coming. The hits I am speaking about are the hits to the taxpayer’s wallet. Medicare Advantage plans have shown remarkable ingenuity in figuring out ways to take more taxpayer money than they should. This particular scheme has been around for a while but is only now getting the attention it deserves.
To refresh everyone’s recollection, Medicare Advantage plans were created to save the government money. The idea was that private enterprise could deliver health care to Medicare beneficiaries cheaper and more efficiently than traditional Medicare. Medicare pays a Medicare Advantage plan
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Choose Your Malpractice Lawyer Carefully. It Makes A Big Difference
I have written frequently about the steps you should take when selecting a new doctor or especially a surgeon. The new doctor or surgeon will be making decisions which can be matters of life and death for you. Choosing a medical malpractice lawyer is not a matter of life and death, but whom you choose for your lawyer can make a big difference in the quality of the experience and the success of the outcome.
Even under the best of circumstances, being the plaintiff in a medical malpractice case is stressful. The lawyers hired by the defendants will examine you
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A Frequently Missed Condition That Can Kill You
In my practice, I review a lot of medical records. If you review enough records, you will see some patterns that repeat over and over. One is the patient who goes to the emergency department or to the primary care physician with some shortness of breath, a cough, and some chest pain. The patient gets treated for the symptoms and sent home, where they proceed to die. The name of the killer? Pulmonary embolism.
The term pulmonary embolism (PE) describes emboli (in this case blood clots) that formed somewhere in the veins of the body, most often in the legs,
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New Developments In Prostate Cancer Treatment
One in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetimes. Most of them will be older than 65. Although prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States after only lung cancer, most of the men diagnosed with prostate cancer will not die from it. According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 3.3 million men who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point are still alive today. New treatment options continue to be developed and to improve the odds for those who fall victim to this disease.
For many years,
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A Large Malpractice Verdict In New Mexico
A recent large medical malpractice verdict in New Mexico was probably due at least in part to the “ick” factor of the injury.
The jury awarded the plaintiff $412 million, of which $37 million was actual damages to compensate him for the injury he suffered, and another $375 million in punitive damages to punish the defendant and to discourage others from engaging in similar conduct.
The story began when the plaintiff, who was 66 at the time, went to a men’s health clinic because he was feeling fatigued and wanted to lose some weight. The clinic operates in a number
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Be Careful! The Quacks Are All Around Us
Last week I wrote about a poor, young girl who died following a dental procedure under general anesthesia. As tragic as her case was, at least the dentist who performed the procedure was a licensed, trained professional. That is not always the case. People who claim to be cosmetic surgeons or other licensed health care providers are all over social media encouraging the gullible, and maybe even the not-so-gullible, to come in for treatment. Cosmetic procedures are one of the hottest areas for these fraudsters as we all want to be young and beautiful forever.
You don’t have to look
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