Cherry Hill, New Jersey Personal Injury Lawyer - Medical Malpractice - Latest Comments

A comment on Myth #4: Malpractice Claims Drive up Doctors’ Premiums.

Jim O'Hare AIC AIS VP med mal claims — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:40:24 GMT

In what type of insurance do the number of claims not influence the premium? - none. Report a fender bender to Allstate monthly and see what happens to your rates.

Professional liability companies cant just raise rates without a lengthy application process to the regulators in the State Ins Dept. A very difficult uphill argument. Rates have actually gone down across the board in Fla, mostly due to competition and the result of some mixed tort reform.

Med mal is a problem in its frequency and how it is handled. There is a better way to get more money to the injured timely. With luck, OI am about to wrap up 2 cases that involve 2003 treatment. These were not in my control. one involves a failure to do a digital rectal exam on a patient w/o a prostate !! The other, we finally got around to deposing the plaintiffs' expert, and he had no criticism of my insured. This is $127k in expenses later. Still cant get a discontinuance. REgards jim

A comment on Myth #4: Malpractice Claims Drive up Doctors’ Premiums.

Bret Hanna — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:17:28 GMT

Mike:

This post is spot on. Your readers may find this post which contains specific statistics from Utah interesting:

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A comment on Myth #2: Malpractice claims drive up health care costs.

Jim O'Hare med mal claims guy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:36:10 GMT

Healthcare and med mal are independant problems, they are casually related, and both need independant focused repair. HC is the problem with HC. The 30% superfluous overhead in a $2.5 trillion industry equates to $750 billion wasted dollars compared to a single payer system like the VET or Medicare. Let me also mention that Aetna or US Health do not provide HC they just broker it. They are not the caregivers.

Med mal needs a different, less costly, more money to the plaintiff system that the courts can not provide. Maybe combine binding arbitration with loser pays system. It would certainly stimulate settlement.
regards Jim VP claims Physicians Ins CO Fl

A comment on Medical Malpractice Reform: A Doctor’s Perspective

Camryn Hansen — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:38:39 GMT

Thanks for reading & commenting, Mike. Discussions of malpractice reform focus so often on money that it's easy to overlook what's really at stake: life and quality of life. The issue of patient safety needs to move back to center stage here.

A comment on Medical Malpractice Reform: A Doctor’s Perspective

Mike Bryant — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:42:04 GMT

Yes, this is why every consumer has to be involved in this issue. They have to demand the protection of their rights and their safety. You hit this issue exactly right.

A comment on Health Care Reform - Not Enough Attention to Medical Error Prevention

Penny Lane — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:03:32 GMT

Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Architects, etc. should take more aggressive steps to get rid of the bad apples that cause most of the problems. The Medical Societies clearly don't do enough to police their own. Most med mal claims are caused by repeat offenders and the good docs suffer.

A comment on Health Care Reform - Not Enough Attention to Medical Error Prevention

Michael Kirsch, M.D. — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:53:02 GMT

I know the Gawande essay well. Obviously, there are many factors that increase medical costs. Are you familiar with the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care? Defensive medicine is an important cause unnecessary care and expense (measured in tens of billions of dollars). This fact, now validated by the Congressional Budget Office is accepted by all stakeholders, including many attorneys. Obviously, some reject the evidence, which I suggest is well beyond a reasonable doubt.
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A comment on Health Care Reform - Not Enough Attention to Medical Error Prevention

Camryn Hansen — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:35:38 GMT

So called "defensive medicine" caused by fear of lawsuits can't be blamed for unnecessary tests, procedures and prescriptions in a system where doctors get paid for each service they provide. The state of Texas, where tort reform now prevents nearly all malpractice lawsuits from going to trial, has some of the highest medical costs per patient in the country, because its doctors systematically over-care for their patients (and make $$$ for it). See Dr. Atul Gawande on this: More ...

A comment on Health Care Reform - Not Enough Attention to Medical Error Prevention

Michael Kirsch, M.D. — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:08:31 GMT

Gentlemen, Many of us are skeptical of the often quoted number of 100,000 folks that we physicians are negligently sending to heaven each year. Nevertheless, I agree that tort reform, which I support, will not improve medical quality. It remedies other deficiencies. Nevertheless, I don't think the current system improves physicians' performance, although I know that the bar disputes this. Paradoxicaly, I believe that it diminishes quality by generating defensive medicine, which exposes the public to the risks and expense of unnecessary testing. Those attorneys who minimize this reality, in my view, are simply uninformed about how physicians function and what we do to try to minimize our fear of being sued. More ...

A comment on Health Care Reform - Not Enough Attention to Medical Error Prevention

Mike Bryant — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:08:09 GMT

It may be the case that tort reform will actually kill even more people. Who are the doctors that will come back? If so many are already really doing "defensive medicine" how can they be trusted to not take more advantage? Hopefully, in the long run, reports like this will lead to less loss of life.