Vested Interest - News and Notes - May 2007 Issue

May 2007 Issue > News

HealthGrades Launches Physician Malpractice Database

HealthGrades, the nation’s leading independent health care ratings company, has compiled the first national database of physician malpractice records available to the public. Detailed information on medical malpractice judgments, settlements and arbitration awards against physicians in fifteen states is now available on-line at www.healthgrades.com, as part of the HealthGrades’ physician quality reports for consumers. The database combines, for the first time, all available public malpractice records. It also includes the amount or range of payment and whether the resolution was a judgment, settlement, or the result of arbitration. In HealthGrades’ data set, approximately three percent of physicians have a malpractice settlement or judgment on their record over the years 2001-2005. That number is likely higher as HealthGrades data is based on state records, some of which contain thresholds for reporting claims. Their data shows the five specialties with the highest percentage of malpractice incidents are, in rank order: bariatric surgery, maternal fetal medicine, neurosurgery, obstectrics and gynecology, and cardiothoracic surgery.  Data is available for physicians in the following states: California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Dakota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont and West Virginia. (Press Release – March 27, 2007)

Senator Settles Lawsuit

U.S. Senator Trent Lott has agreed to settle the lawsuit he filed against State Farm for refusing to cover Hurricane Katrina’s damage to his Gulf Coast home. Terms of his settlement were not disclosed. State Farm agreed in January to pay about $80 million to up to 640 policyholders, including Lott, who sued the insurer. Most of those policyholders have accepted the settlement and received their money, but Lott was among a handful of plaintiffs who had balked. Lott’s case was set to be tried in federal court in September. (AP – April 28, 2007)

Doctors Work on Scar-Free Surgery

Researchers are exploring new ways to do surgery to provide faster recovery times with less pain and no visible scars. Doctors using slender instruments would go through the body’s natural openings, avoiding cutting through the skin and muscle. For surgeries involving the brain, it can avoid a need for manipulating tissue that could disturb brain and eye function. For abdominal surgeries, going through the mouth, vagina or rectum would avoid the need to cut through sensitive tissues. The key to operating through the body openings is the use of specialized slender instruments that can be inserted into the natural channels, along with devices that provide light and a video camera lens at the site of the surgery. Doctors watch their progress on video screens as they manipulate the surgical instruments. (AP- April 30, 2007)

Doctors Sue State

Doctors at a hospital outside New Orleans sued the state seeking $100 million they say they are owed for providing free care to poor and uninsured patients following Hurricane Katrina. The lawsuit was brought by 381 physicians. The state Department of Health and Hospitals set aside about $120 million last year to care for indigent and uninsured patients statewide, but that money goes to hospitals and not to physicians private practices. A Department spokesman said the state can reimburse hospitals, but not private physicians, for treating indigent patient. However, the state helped secure $8 million in federal money for private physicians who provided care to the poor after Katrina. (AP – May 1, 2007)

Court OKs High-Speed Chases

In an 8-1 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police may use tactics that put fleeing suspects at risk of death to end high-speed car chases, in a ruling against a Georgia teenager who was paralyzed after his car was run off the road. Justice Antonin Scalia said in his majority opinion that “A police officer’s attempt to terminate a dangerous high-speed car chase that threatens the lives of innocent bystanders does not violate the Fourth Amendment, even when it places the fleeing motorist at risk of serious injury or death.” Many large police forces have strict rules for when officers can begin high-speed pursuit, limiting chases to instances where there has been a felony crime committed, a misdemeanor crime involving a weapon, or suspected drunken drivers who are an obvious road hazard. The Georgia teenager was wanted only for speeding. The case is Scott v. Harris, 05-1631. (AP – May 1, 2007)

Drug Maker Pleads Guilty

Purdue Pharma and three of its’ executives pled guilty to misleading the public about the safety of the painkiller OxyContin and its’ risk of addiction. They will pay $634.5 million in fines for claiming the drug was less addictive and less subject to abuse than other pain medications. Two days prior to their guilty plea, the company agreed to pay $19.5 million to 26 states and the District of Columbia to settle complaints that it encouraged physicians to over prescribe OxyContin. The drug was designed to be swallowed whole and digested over 12 hours. The pills can produce a heroin-like high if crushed and then swallowed, snorted or injected. According to a report by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the number of oxycodone-related deaths nationwide increased 400 percent while the annual number of OxyContin prescriptions increased nearly 20-fold from 1996-2001. (AP – May 10, 2007)