Vested Interest - News and Notes - January/February 2006 Issue

Court Allows Lawyers to Sidestep Cap on Fees

Handing another blow to the state’s doctors, the Florida Supreme Court cleared the way for attorneys to sidestep a voter-approved cap on attorneys’ fees in medical malpractice cases. The court issued a one-page unanimous ruling ordering the Florida Bar to draw up new rules within 60 days spelling out when attorneys can bypass fee caps on malpractice cases. (ATLA Law News Digest – December 15, 2005)

Full-Time Parents Often Undervalued

An analysis by Salary.com found that today’s 5.4 million stay-at-home moms would earn $131,471 in annual salary, including overtime pay, if they were doing the same work for an employer. (ATLA Law News Digest – December 15, 2005)

FDA Bars Imaging Drug After Deaths

Federal regulators removed from the market a radiological drug called NeutroSpec after 2 people died and 20 others became gravely ill moments after receiving it. NeutroSpec is injected and used to find internal infections, like appendicitis. Palatin Technologies, the drug’s maker, had hoped that changing its label and sending a letter to physicians alerting them to the deaths would be enough to satisfy the FDA. But FDA officials insisted on a withdrawal, and Palatin and its marketing partner, Mallinckrodt, agreed to suspend sales. (ATLA Law News Digest – December 15, 2005)

Move to Crack Down on Expert Witnesses

Neurologists who testify in court are coming under tighter scrutiny by medical authorities who are seeking to weed out unqualified witnesses from the courtroom. In a move that has irked plaintiffs’ attorneys, the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) recently revamped its 16-year-old guidelines regarding expert witness testimony by neurologists. The new guidelines go into effect January 10, 2006. The AAN maintains that the guidelines, which call for tougher expert credentials and warn against doctors advocating for lawyers, are a response to several complaints by physicians about unqualified witnesses. (ATLA Law News Digest – December 15, 2005)

Hospital Overdoses Add to Bleeding Problems in Heart Attack Patients

According to a new study, heart attack patients are often given overdoses of powerful blood-thinning drugs in the emergency room, increasing their risk of serious bleeding. Of the 30,136 heart attack patients studied who were treated last year at U.S. hospitals, 42 percent got excessive doses of blood thinners. Overdoses were particularly common in thin people, women, the elderly and those with kidney problems. Most of the more than 1 million heart attack patients in the United States each year have the type of heart attack studied, involving plaque-narrowed arteries and clots that reduce blood flow to the heart. An estimated 117,000 episodes of bleeding occur each year in these patients. The new study suggests 15 percent of these bleeding episodes may be avoidable. (AP- December 28, 2005)

New Study: Insurers Set Premiums Based on Market, Not Their Losses

The insurance industry has long argued that huge losses from malpractice suits, now running more than $7 billion a year, have forced it to hike malpractice premiums, which more than doubled last year in some cities and for some specialties. But a new study shows that losses reported to state regulators, the figures often cited by the industry, were much larger than losses actually paid during a nine-year period. The study, by the consumer group The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, found that from 1986 to 1994 the industry reported to regulators losses of $39.6 billion but actually paid only $26.7 billion, 31 percent less. The losses were overstated in each of the nine years. (Press Release- The Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights- December 29, 2005)

FDA Will Study Safety of Attention-Deficit Drugs

Reports of deaths, strokes, heart attacks and hypertension in children and adults taking drugs to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are spurring new government studies into the medications safety. The FDA said it has received reports of what it called "serious adverse events" – including deaths – in association with the therapeutic use of the drugs. The agency considers the reports "rare though serious." (ATLA Law News Digest – January 6, 2006)

Files Show Guidant Foresaw Some Risks

Officials of the Guidant Corporation projected in an internal report that some patients might die as a result of short circuits in a company heart device, but it did not publicize the flaw because it apparently viewed the overall failure rate as acceptable. Guidant had also determined in mid-2002 that the consequences of the defibrillator’s electrical failure, while rare, could be "life threatening." Despite that assessment, Guidant kept selling potentially flawed devices and did not notify doctors about the defect until last spring, when the problem was about to be made public. (ATLA Law News Digest – January 6, 2006)

State Extends Deadline for Mercury in Vaccines

Responding to concerns that mercury in vaccines might cause autism, the Illinois Legislature last year passed a law to phase out the preservative. But on January 1, the day the phase-out was to take effect, the head of the Illinois Department of Public Health declared the state will be exempt from the law for 12 months. The director determined the phase-out could cause shortages of this season’s flu shot and lesser-used vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, meningitis and Japanese encephalitis. The law requires that beginning this year, all vaccines for all ages contain, at most, trace amounts of mercury. All vaccines must be completely mercury free by January 1, 2008. However, the law allowed the Health Department director to issue an exemption if the phase-out would lead to vaccine shortages. Without the exemption, the law would have limited mercury to no more than 1.25 micrograms of mercury per dose. Most flu shots contain 25 micrograms, although a flu shot for kids is mercury-free. (Chicago Sun-Times – January 10, 2006)

National Study Evaluates Electronic Reporting of Medical Errors and Adverse Events

Results from a multi-year survey of reports from hospitals using electronic adverse event and error reporting systems indicate than an estimated 34,000 patients a year could be seriously or permanently injured, or die, during hospitalization due to medical errors and adverse events. The findings are based on an extensive study designed and managed by Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston. Among the errors that reached patients, 67 percent caused no harm, while the remaining third caused injury. Although computer reporting stations were easily accessible to all hospital employees, doctors entered fewer than 2 percent of all reported incidents, whereas registered nurses provided nearly half of all medical error reports. (ATLA Law News Digest – January 13, 2006)

GAO to Probe Reprocessing of Single-Use Medical Devices

The Government Accountability Office will investigate the safety of using reconditioned medical devices designated for one-time use and the government’s oversight of the practice. The GAO agreed to open the probe in response to a request from Reps. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), the chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, and Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), the ranking minority member on the committee. The lawmakers’ request followed a series of articles in The Washington Post examining the reuse of single-use medical devices, a growing practice called reprocessing. (ATLA Law News Digest – January 13, 2006)