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Features

Implement a Compliance Plan Before It's Too Late! Image

Implement a Compliance Plan Before It's Too Late!

Barry B. Cepelewicz

In this era of heightened scrutiny of health care practices, every provider of health care services or products (<i>ie</i>, medical practices, clinical laboratories, billing companies, durable medical equipment suppliers, etc.) must implement compliance plans to educate their employees to avoid questionable billing practices before they become the subject of government criminal or civil investigations or lawsuits.

Muddying the Mental Health Waters Image

Muddying the Mental Health Waters

R. Collin Middleton

<b><i>Too Many Professionals Can Wreak Legal Havoc</i></b> Psychiatry is far from being the only mental health profession. A review of the statutes in just this author's state of Alaska reveals separate professional licensing boards for social workers, marital and family therapists, nurses, professional counselors, psychologists, psychological associates and, of course, physicians.

Features

Spoliation of Evidence: The Lost Records Effect Image

Spoliation of Evidence: The Lost Records Effect

Elliott B. Oppenheim

There are two types of spoliation of evidence in medical negligence litigation: physical and content. Physical spoliation of evidence occurs where the tortfeasor physically destroys evidence or in some way makes the evidence unavailable. For example, there's the "shredder effect," where the record is physically destroyed. Or the record can be left on the Risk Manager's desk until the day prior to trial. In either event, there is no physical record.

Features

Jury Awards $12.5 Million to Paralyzed Boy Image

Jury Awards $12.5 Million to Paralyzed Boy

ALM Staff & Law Journal Newsletters &

In one of the largest medical malpractice verdicts in Connecticut state history, a jury ordered Hartford Hospital to pay $12.5 million to a boy who became paralyzed from the neck down while awaiting surgery for a spinal tumor 7 years ago.

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Verdicts Image

Verdicts

ALM Staff & Law Journal Newsletters &

Recent cases of importance to your practice.

Features

After 100 Years, Hospital Liability Takes a Sharp Turn Image

After 100 Years, Hospital Liability Takes a Sharp Turn

Mary-Christine Sungaila & Lisa Perrochet

You are ordinarily not liable for the misdeeds of others, right? Sure, you can be vicariously liable for certain conduct of employees and agents, but not others you may associate with, such as independent contractors. Except sometimes. And now, if you're a hospital that allows independent contractor physicians to treat patients at your facility, "sometimes" is presumptively "all the time." That is the rule laid down in the recent decision, <i>Mejia v. Community Hospital of San Bernardino</i> (2002), 99 Cal.App.4th 1448.

Features

Defense Verdict in Breast Cancer Suit Image

Defense Verdict in Breast Cancer Suit

Jennifer Batchelor

A jury ruled for the defense in a lawsuit in which the plaintiff had undergone a double mastectomy after learning that invasive cancer originating in her left breast had spread to 24 nearby lymph nodes. After a 9-day trial before Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Sheldon Jelin in <i>D'Orazio v. Parlee &amp; Tatem Radiologic Associates Ltd.</i>, jurors deliberated for 2 1/2 days before delivering a verdict on April 27. The verdict relieved three radiologists and two hospitals of liability for plaintiff Shirley W. D'Orazio's alleged reduced chances of survival due to the advanced stage of the disease at the time of diagnosis.

Features

Peer Review: How Privileged? Image

Peer Review: How Privileged?

Elliott B. Oppenheim

How privileged, how impenetrable, is the peer review privilege? In <i>Fox v. Kramer</i>, 22 Cal. 4th 531, 994 P.2d 343 (Cal. 2000), the Supreme Court of California considered this narrow issue: Could plaintiffs Wendy Fox and her husband, Dr. Richard B. Fox, subpoena a doctor to give expert testimony or refer at trial to his draft preliminary report when his conclusions were based on hospital peer review committee records reviewed in the course of his official duties for a public agency?

Features

Verdicts Image

Verdicts

ALM Staff & Law Journal Newsletters &

The latest rulings of importance to your practice.

My Opinion Image

My Opinion

Kevin Costello

Sound off about issues that affect you and/or your practice!

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