New York Medical Malpractice

Michael Rosenberg released the following in an effort to promote positive legislation:

“With just four days remaining before the Superintendent of Insurance is set to impose another exorbitant increase to the already unaffordable cost of medical liability insurance, physicians across New York State are urging the State Legislature to return to Albany to take action to prevent a health care access disaster.

The situation facing New York’s physicians is dire. They are caught in an ever tightening squeeze between rapidly rising overhead costs and declining reimbursement. New York physicians are currently struggling with the 14% malpractice insurance increase that was imposed last July, as well as the cumulative 55-80% rise in premium costs over the last five years. At the same time, physicians face ongoing efforts by private and public health insurers to constrain reimbursement, including a draconian 10.6% cut to their Medicare reimbursement, set to be implemented July 1 unless Congress takes action in the next 48 hours to prevent the cut.

Yet despite these problems the Legislature left Albany without taking any action whatsoever to avert the impending disaster. For many physicians, the increase expected to be promulgated next week will be unaffordable; and, consequently, they simply will be unable to practice.

Hopefully meaningful reform in New York will happen and won’t occur at the cost of quality health care for its citizens.

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In New York and places like Indiana the problem of negligence is significant to the issue of medical malpractice. For instance, the NWI Times reports:

Chris and Karen Bartzis accepted a $1.25 million settlement last month from the Indiana Patient’s Compensation Fund and Munster-based pediatrician Azra Sheriff in connection with their son’s death. The now-divorced couple sued Sheriff in Lake County Superior Court after a medical malpractice panel found in 2006 that the doctor committed malpractice in caring for the toddler.

It is the second time a panel determined malpractice in Sheriff’s care of a patient, the state compensation fund’s online database shows.

Only 10 percent of complaints filed with the panel are found to involve malpractice, according to a Times review of data in the Indiana Patient’s Compensation Fund 2007 annual report.

Although it found malpractice in the Bartzis’ case, the medical panel determined Sheriff’s conduct did not harm or cause the death of Christopher.

Its interesting in this Indiana case that even though they didn’t cause the death of the kid, the government was still held to be responsible in this malpractice case.

Current negotiations for medical malpractice reform are delaying the release of the newest malpractice rates. The New York Sun highlights:

The state’s insurance superintendent, Eric Dinallo, is holding off on raising medical malpractice insurance rates pending negotiations on ways to reform the state’s malpractice system, the insurance department announced yesterday.

When rates for 2008-09 are determined, they will be retroactive to today.

Malpractice insurance rates are set each year by the insurance superintendent, and physician groups were bracing for a single-digit rate increase this year.

Hopefully, this move for reform by New York state will be able to keep medical malpractice rates under control.

Medical malpractice rates are a cost of doing business for doctors and look to be going up according to the New York Sun:

New York physicians are asking for a moratorium on a medical malpractice insurance rate hike that state insurance officials are expected to announce next week.

The rates, set each year by the state’s Insurance Department, are expected to go up by as much as 9% on July 1, physicians and insurance industry sources said. By law, the agency could also impose an additional 8% levy on doctors to supplement the reserves of the malpractice insurance carriers, which might otherwise be exhausted in the near future.

With economic pressures weighing on consumers and businesses across the board, the doctors may receive some empathy.

Unfortunately, diabetes is on the rise. Health News points out:

The constant bombardment by the media (and our parents) about the benefits of healthy food and exercise seems to be falling on deaf ears, as Americans’ incidence of diabetes continues to rise. While not all diabetes can be prevented or controlled through diet or exercise, it certainly could help a good portion of the 3 million Americans who became a diabetic within the last two years, increasing the national total to an estimated 24 million people. According to information just released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this accounts for nearly 8 percent of the American population.

If that’s not enough bad news, there are two more whammies coming our way: (1) another 57 million people are estimated to have pre-diabetes, which is a condition that causes an increased risk for diabetes, and (2) about 25 percent of the people who have the disease are not aware of it (although this percentage has decreased 5 percent over the past two years).

Hopefully, with decisive action, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) can take decisive action to prevent the future rise in diabetes.

Should doctors be able to practice while under investigation for medical malpractice. Some say yes, others strongly disagree. New York Newsday points out:

Gov. David A. Paterson’s measures aimed at improving patient safety and putting more teeth into physician discipline drew a mixed reaction yesterday from experts in health care and the legal profession.

During his news briefing yesterday, Paterson alluded to Dr. Harvey Finkelstein, the Long Island physician caught in controversy after more than 10,000 of his patients were notified they might have been exposed to hepatitis C, B and HIV.

Under the governor’s plan, physicians would not be able to practice while an investigation is under way. But that denies doctors the right of due process, said Dr. Melissa Palmer, a liver specialist in Plainview who evaluated dozens of Finkelstein’s patients for liver disease. “What happened to innocent until proven guilty?” she said yesterday.

“Don’t get me wrong, I think all doctors should be using universal precautions,” she said of guidelines to prevent the transmission of communicable infections in health care settings. “But until they’re actually proven 100 percent guilty, they should not be forced from practice.”

While this is a measure to protect the public, does this go too far in taking away doctor’s rights? You decide. Please voice your opinion, and leave a comment.

A new safety bill in New York increases accountability for those who suffer medical malpractice. NY Newsday documents:

Most doctors charged with misconduct by the state Health Department will have their names made public and all will have just one day to produce office records demanded by investigators under a wide-ranging patient safety bill agreement announced Monday by Gov. David A. Paterson.

The article points out that this rule was created due to the Finkelstein case in which records were not available for 3 years:

Finkelstein, a pain-management doctor who worked primarily from a Plainview office, had infected at least one patient with hepatitis C by reusing syringes in multidose vials. More than 10,000 patients were eventually notified of possible exposure to tainted syringes.

Finkelstein also had accumulated 10 malpractice settlements in a decade, which critics said should have triggered an investigation by the Office of Professional Medical Conduct, the health department agency that investigates doctors. The law will require continuous state review of malpractice records to see if troubling patterns emerge, prompting inquiry. Hannon said it would “restore confidence in the physician-patient relationship. … We can turn around to people who were critical of the system because of Finkelstein and say we have made substantial improvement.”

This new development is great. It seems to fill the existing legal loophole and increase patient safety.

You can use the renewed awareness around sudden cardiac death to improve your health. New York Newsday reports:

“Any time a celebrity has a medical problem that hits the news, there’s a heightened awareness of the condition. That’s human nature,” said Dr. Stephen Green, chief of cardiology at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset. “We’ve been seeing more people coming into the emergency room and scheduling appointments.”

Today, heart disease treatment and heart attack prevention are a combination of the age-old mantra — don’t smoke, do exercise, maintain a healthy weight, and eat well — and tests and medications that can bolster the system against deadly episodes.

Along with standard tests for heart disease risk, many doctors are turning to an array of new screenings that pinpoint protein markers as a way to get a jump-start on cardiovascular disease and to stop it before it starts.

Some are looking at C-reactive protein, a marker in the blood that indicates inflammation. Blocked coronary arteries are prime examples of inflammation.

Check out the article at NY Newsday. If you’ve gone to a doctor and you believe that they have performed a procedure like one of the above and you’ve been harmed by the proceedure, please seek responsible legal counsel.

In New York health and product liability news, the Associated Press reports:

Unhealthy trans fats in restaurant food? Not in New York City.

Eateries must remove artificial trans fats from all menu items by July 1.

When first implemented last year, the Health Department ban applied only to fry oils and spreads. It now will also include baked goods, frozen foods, cannoli and doughnuts.

Read the full story at the AP to get more details.

The nation’s health is in such disarray, its good to see a step away from trans fat in New York City. Hopefully other cities and localities will follow New York’s lead. Street vendors must be in a pickle, however.