Medical Malpractice | InjuryBoard Cherry Hill

Former Missouri Insurance Commissor Jay Angoff analyzed the financial statements of the 15 largest medical malpractice insurance companies in the U.S. His report found there was no basis for high insurance rates. The 15 largest insurers paid out an average of 31.4 cents in claims for every dollar they collected in 2006. That means that for every $1 that a hospital or health care provider...

Continue article

In an underreported story in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, a representative from the American Medical Association writes to point out that it is unethical for doctors to accept gifts from drug companies. The AMA ethics opinion E-8.061 has been around since 1990. The New England Journal published an article in their April 26, 2007 issue that presented disturbing evidence...

Continue article

To add insult to injury, a doctor in Ohio who botched a gastric bypass operation that killed his patient, has no medical malpractice insurance. If that wasn't bad enough for the husband who sued on behalf of his deceased wife, the doctor has skillfully hidden or shielded all of his assets. In Ohio doctors are not required to carry medical malpractice insurance. However, if they make that...

Continue article

Corporate America and in particular, the Wall Street Journal, are happy today with the developments concerning the implosion of the once famous law firm, Milberg Weiss & Bershad. However, the public at large also benefits when wrongdoers are punished for their acts. Faced with federal indictments, members of the firm are striking their own guilty pleas to save their skins and will implicate...

Continue article

When a doctor prescribes a certain drug, is he or she doing it because it is in the best interest of their patient or because the drug company has given the doctor a free trip to the Super Bowl. A recent report in the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry found that in Australia doctors receive an average of 42 gifts and "educational items" over an 8 week period. 23% of Australian specialists are...

Continue article

When President Bush defeated Senator Kerry in 2004, he had the support of the vast majority of our 25 million veterans. This, despite the fact that Kerry volunteered for duty in Vietnam and won medals that were approved by senior Admirals and the Secretary of the Navy. Now, three years later, the Bush Administration threatened to veto a bill to increase veteran's health care. A...

Continue article

Public Citizen has has ranked the serious disciplinary actions taken by State Medical Boards. New Jersey has 32,662 physicians. In 2006, there were 84 serious actions taken by the New Jersey Board. The action rate per 1000 physicians in NJ is 2.50--which ranks #40 of the 51 boards. The report concludes that "there is considerable evidence that most boards are under-disciplining physicians." The...

Continue article

Presidential candidate John Edwards, a former North Carolina trial lawyer and former United States Senator, has set forth his position on the topic of medical malpractice reform. In a positon paper released to today he called for an end to frivolous lawsuits. Edwards will require lawyers to have an expert testify that actual malpractice has occurred before bringing a suit. There will be...

Continue article

Medical Mutual Liability Insurance Society of Maryland, which insures about 6,500 doctors in Maryland, lowered its premiums by 8 percent this year and plans another reduction next year. Many insurance companies, fearful of lawsuits claiming price gouging by their doctor clients, are now reducing premiums. They recognize that their campaign to convince legislators that tort reform is...

Continue article

There were many years when the tobacco industry paid doctors to say the cigarette smoking didn't cause cancer. If anyone made that argument today they would be ridiculed. The same shift of public opinion is beginning to happen on the need for tort reform. Doctors have advocated the need for medical malpractice reforms in the state legislatures. The truth is slowly coming out that there...

Continue article

A study done by the United States Department of Justice confirms that the much-hyped "medical malpractice crisis" simply doesn't exist. Most cases brought against doctors are dismissed and the ones that go to trial are generally won by the doctors. This study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the Justice Department needs to be widely disseminated by the media to debunk the Chamber of...

Continue article

A San Diego jury awarded $5.7 million to Regis Reilly, now 53. They found that Reilly's doctor failed to diagnose his skin cancer. The verdict will be reduced to $1.9 million because of the medical malpractice caps that exist in California. In most other states, the entire verdict would be paid. There have been numerous valid studies that have shown that medical malpractice caps do...

Continue article

By the narrowist of margins, the Arizona House of Representatives defeated attempts make it more difficult for victims ot medical malpractice to bring lawsuits. The bill had already passed the Senate. A similar bill last year was vetoed by Governor Napolitano. The doctors and their allies claimed the bill was needed because they contend frivolous lawsuits scare doctors away from...

Continue article

Doctors make me chuckle. They hate lawyers, they hate lawsuits, and they especially hate class action lawsuits. Unless it's their own. A group of 900,000 doctors just settled a class action lawsuit against Blue Cross and Blue Shield for $128 Million. That after they received $405 Million from other insurers, including Aetna, Wellpoint, HeathNet, CIGNA, and Humana. The claims were based...

Continue article

A new study reported in the Sydney Morning Hearld reports that linking drinking and breast and bowel cancer should cause women to rethink their drinking habits. The World Health Organization says there is enough evidence to add breast and colorectal (colon or bowel) cancer to the list of cancers already associated with drinking alcohol, which include mouth, throat and liver cancer.WHO's...

Continue article