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There are so many things to look at in the ridiculous claims that are often made by tort reform proponents who call for medical malpractice changes. Two areas that often come up are cost savings and the argument that doctors get sued all the time.

A couple of recent items caught my eye concerning each of these topics:

– There is so much fraud out there in the health care system. Sure there can be cost saving if you simple rewrite the Constitution and take away people’s right to sue. You would still have society having to pay for all of the damage that was left behind. But, shouldn’t we start with the Medicare fraud that is out there?

The Washington Post recently reported that :

Miami health-care executive Larry Duran orchestrated one of the largest Medicare frauds in U.S. history, submitting more than $205 million in phony claims and landing a record-breaking 50-year prison sentence for his crimes.

But another piece of Duran’s scheme also caught the eye of prosecutors. They say he extended his fraud through his lobbying efforts, all aimed at getting official Washington to make it easier for mental health centers such as his to make money.

An advocacy group he helped set up, the National Association for Behavioral Health (NABH), has spent more than $750,000 on lobbying efforts over the past five years, including staging “fly-ins” on Capitol Hill and providing advice to group members on how to get around Medicare denials, according to the Justice Department. The group also held fundraisers for lawmakers such as Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and former congressman Kendrick B. Meek (D-Fla.), records show.

There is a lot of money out there that is simply being stolen and doesn’t seem to be as important to the tort reformers. There needs to be a crack down on the real problems in the system.

Poptorts took a look at how doctors aren’t really afraid of the courtroom as long as they are suing. Including a United States Supreme Court case where they are fighting to have the right to bring the suit. As is pointed out:

Imagine not being able to bring a lawsuit in a situation like this, when doctors have clearly been wronged, and when the poor are going to suffer for it, right?

If only the ER docs saw the same value helping poor folks get proper treatment like this as helping some of those same patients who are negligently injured. For example, last November, we wrote about Florida legislation that would give ER doctors who treat Medicaid patients "sovereign immunity," and cap their liability for committing medical negligence against the poor at $100,000.

I wonder if they really understand the hypocrisy and simply don’t care?

77 Comments

  1. Gravatar for Cilla Mitchell
    Cilla Mitchell

    In other words, doctors are now taking the "Hypocrisy Oath" instead of the Hippocratic Oath. No surprise.

    Providing a link to a video showing the collateral damage left behind Governor Rick Perry's 2003 Tort Reform Act. This video substantiates your post.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT7rxa21_Xo

    If you can not access link, just Google Cleveland Mark Mitchell, then click on youtube Cleveland Mark Mitchell December 12 1950 - April 26 2008.

    Thank you for your time.

  2. Gravatar for Cilla Mitchell
    Cilla Mitchell

    Another example is a letter written by Mrs. Mae Rooks which is posted on the Medina County Texas Dems website. She wrote a straight forward no nonsense letter stating exactly what happened to her son and how the medical community is allowed to get away with, dare I say it, murder. The woman who has the website has been taking an active interest in Tort Reform ever since Mrs. Rooks and I emailed her letters and provided videos to get her attention. It is a amazing how many people do not understand what Tort Reform is until it is too late. The website is:

    mcdp@medinademocrats.org

  3. Mike Bryant

    thanks for the very helpful and informative comments and thanks for taking the time to read my post.

  4. Gravatar for Ben Rush MD
    Ben Rush MD

    You conflate fraud w malpractice - and apparently get away w it. Well played, but your Jedi mind tricks only work on the weak-minded.

  5. Mike Bryant

    Dr Rush apparently you are only half reading again. The point is that the money to be saved isn't in giving immunity to butchers and those that don't do the job they are so well paid to do. Thanks again for stopping by.

  6. Gravatar for jc
    jc

    I am a strong supporter of Texas tort reform and it should be expanded to all states. 80% of the time plaintiff attorneys lose when they go to court. Hard to find another industry in the USA with an 80% failure rate. I watched Cilla Mitchell's story on YouTube where she talked about losing her husband because of a long wait. I gotta tell you, I have a lot of questions about that story. Cilla says her husband dying was murder. Did she report her suspicions to the police or request a coroner and get an autopsy? Without an autopsy, it gets really hard to determine what caused the death, but the pts family often is reluctant to get the autopsy. So tell us Cilla, did you go to the police and report this suspicious death and did a coroner investigate? Did you request an autopsy?

  7. Gravatar for Cilla Mitchell
    Cilla Mitchell

    jc, there you go, running at the mouth again, or in your case, the keyboard. If you really listened to the video, I stated, "In my opinion, that is murder."

  8. Mike Bryant

    So JC takes the personal claims against his practice (are you willing to admit that is what drives your late night comments?) to attack another persons comments. Very sad indeed.

    What about that oath you took?

    The rest of the comment is your usual misguided drivel.

    The numbers are wrong and you don't really care. Because as you have been informed many times things are not better in Texas, in fact the costs are still high, the poor are finding it harder to get treatment, and when malpractice does happen most people have no remedy.

  9. Gravatar for jc
    jc

    Mikey--Wrong again! Malpractice insurance costs are the lowest in Texas compared with anywhere else! A colleague of mine pays a third of what I pay for similar risk. I think Texas is taking a step in the right direction. My hope is that we eventually junk malpractice litigation in favor of medical courts. Hey, we have manditory arbitration for brokerage accounts and Public utility commissions for power outages. Why not medical courts?

  10. Gravatar for jc
    jc

    I like Florida's idea of giving soveriegn immunity to ER docs for treating Medicaid patients. In fact this soveriegn immunity should be extended to all physicians who treat Medicaid patients. Medicaid is the worst insurance out there, and docs lose money on every Medicaid they see. They are also the most non-complient and most prone to litigation, so what doc wants to deal with that! Capping damages at 100K is also a great idea, but I think it should be a lot lower.

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