Understanding EMTALA and the Courts
Because many attorneys who handle professional liability cases are not also involved in cases challenging government regulations, they may not be familiar with the weight that the courts often give to regulations and regulatory preambles such as those discussed in last month's article on the new Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) regulations. This article should aid in filling any such gaps in the attorney's experience.
Med Mal News
Important news of interest to you and your practice.
Containing Health Insurance Cost Increases
There's no relief in sight from rising health-care costs. Hewitt Associates, of Lincolnshire, IL, projects that health care costs will increase 15.4% this year, following an average rate hike last year of 13.7%. If this trend continues, Hewitt estimates, health coverage cost will double over the next 5 years. Law firms coast-to-coast therefore continue to search for their own magic bullets. While doing so, however, they're being careful not to shoot themselves in the foot. Firms see a strong benefits package as critical to retaining and recruiting employees, and therefore take a largely conservative approach to managing health-care costs - trying to maintain generous levels of coverage while minimizing the financial blow to employees.
Fighting Back: Is Insurance Funding Doctors' Countersuits the Answer to Med Mal Crisis?
Increasingly alarmed by the real and imagined inequities of the medical malpractice system, physicians across the country have been looking everywhere for relief. They have lobbied for law reform at both state and federal levels, they have rallied and protested, and some have even gone "on strike." While their efforts have achieved some success — notably in states that have enacted severe damage caps, such as California and Indiana — malpractice insurance premiums have continued to rise, prompting repeated announcements that the medical profession is facing an economic crisis.
Is 'Medical Justice' the Magic Key?
Increasingly alarmed by the real and imagined inequities of the medical malpractice system, physicians across the country have been looking everywhere for relief. They have lobbied for law reform at both state and federal levels, they have rallied and protested, and some have even gone "on strike." With so much angst and anger among so many affluent professionals, it was only a matter of time before an astute entrepreneur figured out a way to cash in on the problem. Which brings us to Dr. Jeffrey Segal, a North Carolina neurosurgeon and the founder of a new insurance plan called "Medical Justice," which he promotes as a deterrent to malpractice litigation. It is an intriguing idea that just might work. Then again, it might only be a clever marketing ploy.
Verdicts
Recent rulings of importance to you and your practice.
Deposing the Hospital's Librarian and Chief of Staff
As part of discovery, the attorney would want to determine the origin of a particular medical record and seek explanations for whatever spoliation has occurred, whether physical (destruction or absence of the record) or content spoliation (an inaccurate account of the medical care). The place to begin, then, is with those responsible for enforcing medical record rules and regulations: the Chief of Staff and the hospital medical record librarian.
New EMTALA Regulations
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which imposes requirements on hospitals with emergency departments to screen and stabilize anyone who comes to the emergency department seeking treatment, can provide the basis for a private civil action against the hospital if a person is injured by the hospital's violation of its requirements. New regulations clarifying hospitals' obligations under EMTALA went into effect November 10, providing new guidance on how the federal agency charged with enforcing the statute interprets its terms.
Med Mal News
National news of interest to the medical malpractice community.
Verdicts
The latest rulings of importance to you and your practice.
