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Eddie Farah and the Farah and Farah legal team are committed to providing clients and visitors to our website with the latest in consumer news. We will keep you up to date on the changing face of consumer topics relating to personal injury, medical malpractice, nursing home neglect, hurricane insurance, and a variety of other areas of the law with articles, helpful tips, and reports from magazines, universities, and news organizations across the country.
Click on a topic below to explore articles relating to that particular area:
Health care premiums continue to rise and employers are opting to pass more of that cost onto employees. Since 2000 employers’ premiums have climbed 73% bringing the average annual premium for family coverage to $10,880. The average worker is paying 26% of that premium making employer-sponsored coverage too expensive for many low-income employees. To keep costs down fewer small businesses are even offering health benefits dropping to 60% today down from 69% in 2000.
Meanwhile, the Palm Beach Post reports that profits for HMO’s in Florida jumped about 51% in 2004 to $722.8 million. Humana tops the list as the top money-maker in 2004. It earned $164.9 million, almost tripling income from the previous year. Aetna United and United Healthcare were the second and third largest earner in 2004. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida’s Health Options earnings were down almost 40 million from the previous year.
2005 is not shaping up to be the same kind of banner year for profits for our state HMOs. For the first three months of 2005 top winner Aetna Health Inc., realized a 23% gain over the same period last year. Health Options Inc. was the state’s second most-profitable HMO with $28.9 million—down from the same period in 2004.
United Healthcare of Florida posted a $24.8 million profit—again down from the previous year profits for the same period. The company lost a quarter of its HMO members since the first quarter of 2004 and saw revenues drop during that time by 24%. And Humana Medical Plan, most profitable in 2004, saw revenues dip 45.2% from the previous year with profits in the first three months of 2005 a mere $20.9 million. New figures for profits in 2005 are expected to be issued soon from the state Office of Insurance Regulation. http://www.floir.com/
(MIAMI, November 23, 2005) - The highest amount ever awarded in a Federal Tort Claims Act-- $60.9 million, has been given to a Miami boy and his parents. Federal Judge Jose A. Gonzalez ruled the OB Clinic at the Mayport Naval Station in Jacksonville was guilty of medical negligence in the delivery of Kevin Bravo Rodriguez.
The boy, now two years old, cannot speak, hear, see, swallow or move. He requires 24 hours of care a day.
After nearly 29 hours of labor, doctors at the OB Clinic delivered the baby via cesarean section. Baby Kevin was blue and had no heart rate but was resuscitated after 15 minutes of CPR and epinephrine injections. Deprived of oxygen too long, Kevin is now brain dead.
During the two-week bench trial, Navy Serviceman Oscar Rodriguez testified that he would give his life for his son. The next day, he was shipped to Iraq to serve his country.
According to a March 6, 2006 story in the Florida Times-Union, most of the recommendations from a congressionally chartered panel that studied the military health system six years ago have not filtered down to the Jacksonville Naval Hospital.
The dozen recommendations address patient safety problems following 11 deaths at the hospital and 15 federal tort claims of medical negligence and wrongful death. The recommendations were submitted to the Pentagon and Congress in 2001.
Navy medical personnel blame human nature to bureaucratic inefficiency for the lethal failures. Other failures include:
* Faulty record-keeping – Often patients and their family members had to carry their own records from appointment to appointment. Records were found to be missing or important medical information never recorded.
* A lack of continuity of care - Patients would have to see more than one doctor for the same medical problem and information was not shared between doctors.
* A lack of competency in some doctors – And a failure to report those involved in errors to state medical boards or to the National Practitioners Data Bank, which maintains a permanent record of malpractice.
The government has settled 15 negligence cases against the hospital since 2001. Last year federal judges awarded judgments totaling nearly $67 million in the cases of two boys left blind and severely brain damaged by negligent care at the hospital. The government is appealing those rulings.
Four more cases, three involving deaths, are pending.
At Farah & Farah we are experienced in handling medical malpractice claims for wrongful death in federal court. We believe that military hospitals and particularly the Jacksonville Naval Hospital should deliver to military personnel and their families the highest standard of care for those who unselfishly serve our country.
You may have heard a number of myths about medical malpractice and the civil justice system. Here are the facts:
1. MYTH: Debate over malpractice compensation is just about frivolous lawsuits.
FACT: The proposed limits on damages would apply to ALL cases, no matter how serious or how egregious the malpractice by the doctor, hospital or drug manufacturer.
2. MYTH: Medical malpractice claims are driving up the cost of health care for everyone.
FACT: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports that all costs related to medical malpractice account for less than 2% of total health care costs.
3. MYTH: We need caps on damages to reduce doctors’ malpractice insurance premiums.
FACT: States that have enacted caps haven’t seen lower rates – and insurers admit they won’t reduce rates if new legal restrictions are enacted.
4. MYTH: Fear of being sued forces doctors to practice defensive medicine.
FACT: The General Accounting Office (GAO) says the evidence that defensive medicine occurs is “weak and inconclusive” and the CBO says “savings from reducing defensive medicine would be very small.”
5. MYTH: Medical malpractice and negligence are not a problem.
FACT: As many as 98-thousand individuals die every year because of medical errors – more people than die in motor vehicle accidents or from breast cancer.
--Trial Magazine, May 2006
http://www.atla.org/pressroom/FACTS/medmal/Top5myths.aspx
Here are some of the facts you should know about the real cost of healthcare.
Malpractice costs amounted to “less than 2 percent of overall health care spending. Thus, even a reduction of 25 percent to 30 percent in malpractice costs would lower health care costs by only about 0.4 percent to 0.5 percent, and the likely effect on health insurance premiums would be comparably small.” [Congressional Budget Office, “Limiting Tort Liability for Medical Malpractice,” 1/08/04]
Even the Budget submitted by the Bush Administration did not cite savings from caps. Despite the Administration’s claims that severe caps on damages for victims will result in lower health care costs, the Bush-Cheney budget for 2005 does not include any healthcare savings associated with these caps. [Bush-Cheney FY2005 Budget]
Despite claims about “Defensive Medicine,” Americans are not getting the care they need. “Proponents of limiting malpractice liability have argued that much greater savings in health care costs would be possible through reductions in the practice of defensive medicine. However, some so-called defensive medicine may be motivated less by liability concerns than by the income it generates for physicians or by the positive (albeit small) benefits to patients. On the basis of existing studies and its own research, CBO believes that savings from reducing defensive medicine would be very small.” [Congressional Budget Office “Limiting Tort Liability for Malpractice,” 1/8/04]
http://www.atla.org/pressroom/FACTS/medmal/Healthcare.aspx
Medical errors kill as many as 98,000 Americans every year and cost as much as $29 billion, according to the Institute of Medicine. Other research suggests that the human toll may be far higher, with preventable errors and negligence taking the lives of 195,000 people each year. [“To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System,” Institute of Medicine, 2000; “Patient Safety in American Hospitals,” HealthGrades, July 2004, www.healthgrades.com]
78% of people believe the quality of health care has stayed the same or worsened over the past five years, and 55% say they are dissatisfied with the quality of their health care. [“National Survey on Consumers’ Experiences With Patient Safety and Quality Information”—The Kaiser Family Foundation/Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality/Harvard School of Public Health, November 2004]
High premiums are the direct result of bad insurance industry conduct. A coalition of public interest organizations found that malpractice premiums increase when investment values decrease. “Since 1975, the data shows that in constant dollars, per doctor written premiums—the amount of premiums that doctors have paid to insurers—have gyrated almost precisely with the insurer’s economic cycle, which is driven by such factors as insurer mismanagement and changing interest rates.” [Americans for Insurance Reform, 10/10/02]
Inflation and other insurance industry forces drove up doctors’ insurance premiums more than lawsuits, according to Weiss Ratings, Inc., a non-partisan, independent financial ratings company. These factors “continue to drive—med mal premiums up, evidently overwhelming any reduction in jury awards.” The factors include, among other things, 75 percent inflation in medical costs and dramatic declines in insurers’ investment income as the stock market collapsed. [Weiss Report, 6/3/03]
ATLA.org – Facts & Resources
According to the American Medical Association, the number of Ob/Gyns and the number of general practitioners of medicine is steadily increasing. The insurance industry wants you to believe that medical malpractice claims are driving doctors out of the medical profession and hurting your ability to choose a doctor. That is a scare tactic used by the insurance industry.
The premiums that doctors have to pay for medical malpractice insurance are too high – that’s true. But it’s not because of malpractice lawsuits or payments to injured patients. In fact, lawsuits and payments to patients are actually declining. Instead, the insurance industry is price-gouging doctors to make up for its investment losses.
A study by the former insurance commissioner of Missouri looked at the official filings of the biggest medical malpractice insurers. Over the last five years, insurance companies have drastically raised their insurance premiums by more than double, even though claims payments have been flat or in some cases have decreased.
In 2004, malpractice insurers’ total premiums were three times higher than their total payouts. This is final proof – from the industry’s own numbers – that insurance executives are gouging doctors and lying to Congress and the public about it.
The insurance industry gets away with this because it is the only major industry in the country (other than major league baseball) that is exempt from federal regulation and anti-trust laws.
Insurance industry price-gouging needs to stop – to prevent further victimization of American families who’ve already been harmed once by a medical tragedy. We need to reclaim our health care system from the insurance industry and return it to doctors and patients, where it belongs.
---TRIAL, May 2006, http://www.atla.org
Hospital infections are the fourth leading cause of death among Americans. Germ-laden instruments, unsanitary facilities and a survey that finds half of nurses and doctors do not wash their hands between patients, are all contributing causes.
Unfortunately many staph infections have become resistant to antibiotic treatment, so reminding your medical providers to wash their hands before working with you is critical. As a patient, you should wash your hands carefully after handling any type of body fluid and especially after going to the bathroom. Additional safety precautions include:
If you have an intravenous catheter make sure your nurse keeps the skin around the dressing clean and replaces the dressing if it works loose or gets wet.
If you have a drainage tube, let your nurse know if it becomes loose or dislodged since catheters, IV’s and drainage tubes are all entry points for germs. Discuss with your doctor when they can be safely removed.
Likewise if you have a dressing on a wound, tell your nurse if it gets dislodged or wet.
If you have diabetes, be sure to discuss the best way to control your blood sugar before, during and after your hospital stay. High blood sugar increases the risk of infection significantly.
Lose weight. If you are overweight it will reduce the risk of infection after surgery.
If you smoke QUIT! A smoking cessation program will reduce the chance of developing lung infections while in the hospital and may improve your healing ability after surgery.
Ask well-wishers not to visit if they feel ill.
Enlist the help of friends and relatives to become active members of your health care team.
To check out a local hospital or clinic go to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations. Their Website is www.JointCommission.org,
Under “General Public” click on “Quality Check.” Then type in the name of the facility. For more on patient safety go to the National Patient Safety Foundation: http://www.npsf.org
Congress passed a Medicare prescription drug law which provides only modest drug coverage to seniors, fails to reduce high drug costs and leaves the future of the medicare program as we know it in doubt. This landmark measure will cost tax-payers $400 billion over the next ten years.
Drug companies are huge winners because demand will in crease as drug prices remain high. With more than seven lobbyists for every senator and with a friend in the White House, the drug industry - whose top 10 companies made $36 billion in profits in 2002 - made out like a bandit. There is no provision limiting drug prices or assuring Medicare can negotiate them for recipients. The industry successfully fought to have drug coverage provided by private insurers, rather than Medicare. It figured if Medicare paid for seniors' drug, like it pays for hospital and physician services provided by the private sector now, the government would use the bargaining clout of 41 million beneficiaries to negotiate sizable price cuts. After all, the cost of drugs to the Veterans Department averages 45 percent off retail prices, because the government negotiates with the industry.
The drug industry also successfully blocked a highly popular program to let pharmacies and wholesalers in the United States import and sell lower-cost drugs from abroad, particularly Canada. Americans who purchase drugs across the border typically pay 50 percent less than in the United States. The only hit the drug industry took under the new law was modest - making less-expensive generic drugs available sooner by limiting the ways the brand-name drug companies can block them from coming to market.
- Public Citizen News
( WASHINGTON, April 3, 2006) - Your loved one goes into the hospital and never comes out. Did they die from their illness or a medical error? A new study shows 250,000 Medicare patients were killed by preventable medical errors from 2002-2004.
The study is the third annual HealthGrades “Patient Safety in American Hospitals,” assessment and it finds 1.24 million patient safety or medical errors occurred in that time period. According to HealthGrades, among the entire population, not just Medicare patients, there were 575,000 preventable deaths caused by medical errors.
And one in three Americans say they or a family member has experienced a medical error.
Medical errors can include deep-vein thrombosis (DVT), post-operative respiratory failure or embolus and hospital-induced infections, which are the fourth largest cause of death in Americans.
Some Florida hospitals ranked in the “Best Performing Hospitals” category including Flagler Hospital, St. Augustine; Florida Hospital, Orlando; and Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne. HealthGrades is an independent healthcare rating company that provides data to the medical profession.
Meanwhile Congress continues to try to limit compensation for victims of medical malpractice and strip them of their constitutional rights to hold negligent corporations accountable. See more on the “Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study 2006” at www.healthgrades.com
See April 3, 2006 , July 27, 2004 reports: http://www.healthgrades.com/PressRoom/index.cfm?fuseaction=PressReleases
( WASHINGTON, May 8, 2006) Congress has voted against two measures limiting jury awards in medical malpractice lawsuits sponsored by Senate Republicans.
S. 22 would have set a $250,000 cap for individual health care providers, a $500,000 cap when more than one provider was involved and a $750,000 total cap. The bill was based on a Texas law passed a few years ago that capped awards in medical malpractice cases.
The vote represents the fourth time in three years the Senate has rejected Republican-sponsored legislation involving medical malpractice. Read text of legislation at: http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/dpc-new.cfm?doc_name=lb-109-2-59
( CHICAGO, October 2005) – Fewer medical malpractice claims are being filed in the U.S. after years of soaring liability for doctors and hospitals.
The Study by Aon Corporation, finds a 1 percent decrease in claims for both hospitals and physicians. This is the first decline reported in so-called claims frequency since the Chicago insurance-brokerage firm began studying malpractice claims in 2000.
At the same time the amount of each claims is steadily increasing, growing at a trend rate of 7.5 percent annually.
The decline in claims frequency could signal good news for patients seeking an improved quality of care from medical professionals.
Four states leading the decline in frequency – Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida and California, have enacted some form of legislation making it more difficult to file and benefit from medical-malpractice claims. Those changes include caps on damages; limits on expert witnesses, and rules about where patients can file claims.
Aon works closely consulting and providing services, insurance and reinsurance to the insurance industry. The Attorneys General of New York, Illinois, and Connecticut charged Aon with fraudulent and uncompetitive behavior. In spring of 2005, Aon acknowledged wrongdoing and settled out of court for $190 million payable over 30 months
More at:
http://www.aon.com/about/publications/issues/wp_2005_prof_phys_liability_bench
_analysis.jsp
http://sev.prnewswire.com/insurance/20051018/CGTU02018102005-1.html
A report by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), the research arm of Congress reports evidence that the medical malpractice “crisis” is a myth. A report issued in August 2003 examined nine states, including Florida, which the American Medical Association classified as “crisis” states. Doctors in that area reported higher than average increases in malpractice insurance premiums and in response were leaving the state, abandoning their practices or reducing services.
The GAO rejected the notion of any “crisis” and reported that “many of the reported physician actions and hospital-based service reductions were not substantiated or did not widely affect access to health care.”
Actual number of physician departures were sometimes found to be inaccurate or involved relatively few physicians. The GAO did not find access to services widely affected in the five “crisis” states.
The GAO report was commissioned by three members of the House of Representatives who hoped the evidence would support their argument to limit medical liability, cap damages and restrict patients’ rights to file medical malpractice claims.
The GAO found instead that higher premiums resulted from insurers trying to recoup losses on their investments from 1998 to 2001. Investments is where most insurers make their real profits.
Prices in Florida hospital emergency rooms are exorbitantly high, making it hard for the uninsured to pay for their ER bills. For example, the cost of a simple paper gown for a surgical patient is 36 cents, but most Florida ERs charge $8-79$ per gown, "a potential markup of 21,944%." Consumer advocates have been complaining about these markups, but now insurers are also siding with the consumers. Insurers are lobbying the legislature to reduced the huge markups and to at the very least make hospitals make their pricing policies public.
- Miami Herald
According to a recently released Congressional Budget Office report, "medical liability reforms proposed in Congress wouldn't have a big impact on overall health care spending in the United States. "According to the report, the $24 billion in malpractice costs in 2002 "accounted for less than 2% of health care spending. "As a result, even a reduction of 25% to 30% in malpractice costs "Would lower health care costs by only about 0.4% to 0.5%, and the likely effect on health insurance premiums would be comparatively small."
-Amendnews.com
Fights between health-maintenance organizations and their members are more likely to be over coverage for treatments such as liposuction, breast alteration and varicose-vein removal than over medical care with direct health consequences, according to a new study.
To a significant extent, flash points for managed-care disputes appear to track "areas of societal uncertainty about the legitimate boundaries of insurance coverage, " according to the study, which offers a rare peek into the black box of HMO's internal-appeals systems.
The study appears in this week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The finding come in the wake of attacks on HMO's in movies such as last year's "John Q" as well as media reports of patient's multimillion-dollar lawsuits against HMO's for denials of costly care. "There certainly has been a lack of attention to the more routine or garden variety type of appeals," said David M. Studdert, the study's lead author and an assistant professor at Harvard University School of Public Health in Boston.
-The Wall Street Journal
Most major U.S. hospitals are required to set official "charges" for their services, but then agree to discount or even ignore those charges when getting paid by big institutions such as insurance companies or the government. As a result, almost no one but uninsured individuals ever faces the official charges. In some ways, hospital charges are like automobile "list prices" or "rack rates" -posted prices that everybody knows nobody pays. But in the case of hospitals, the pricing disparity isn't publicly known and falls most heavily on the vulnerable. America's 41 million people without health insurance tend to be young, working-class and unaware that they are being billed more than everyone else for the same services.
At the same time, charges at virtually all hospitals have soared in recent years. That's partly due to the rising costs of new procedures and drugs. Also, deregulation of the hospital industry removed limits on charges in almost all states. But some hospital say they are raising charges to offset what they view as overly harsh reductions in their reimbursements by HMO's, insurers and the government. That would mean hospitals are effectively subsidizing their lower income from patients who are insured or have a government safety-net by boosting fees paid by the uninsured.
-The Wall Street Journal
A study by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Public Citizen published in the January issue of the International Journal of Health Services finds that health care bureaucracy last year cost the United States $399.4 billion. The study estimates that national health insurance (NHI) could save at least $286 billion annually on paperwork, enough to cover all of the uninsured and to provide full prescription drug coverage for everyone in the United States.
The study was based on the most comprehensive analysis to date of health administration spending, including data on the administrative costs of health insurers, employers' health benefit programs, hospitals, nursing homes, homecare agencies, physicians and other practitioners in the United States and Canada. The authors found that bureaucracy accounts for at least 31 percent of total U.S. health spending compared to 16.7 percent in Canada. They also found that administration has grown far faster in the United States than in Canada.
The potential administrative savings of $286 billion annually under national health insurance could:
1. Offset the cost of covering the uninsured (estimated at $80 billion).
2. Cover all out-of-pocket prescriptions drugs costs for seniors as well as those under 65 (estimated at $53 billion in 2003).
3. Fund retraining and job placement programs for insurance workers and others who would lose their jobs under NHI (estimated at $20 billion).
4. Make substantial improvements in coverage and quality of care for U.S. consumers who already have insurance.
-Public Citizen Health Research Group Health Letter.
Medical Malpractice "Lottery" Doesn't Pay Out
According to the public use file of the National PRactitioner Data Bank, which voices malpractice judgments and settlements since September 1990, only six percent, or 2,674 of the state's 44,747 doctors have paid two or more malpractice awards to patients. These doctors are responsible for 51 percent of all payments and 47 percent of the dollar-value of payments. Overall, they have paid out $1.2 billion in damages. THere are 915 doctors who have paid three or more malpractice claims that amount to more that $575 million.
More Questionable Doctors: Where's the Doctor Watchdog
There are many physicians now practicing in Florida who, had they been practicing in states with more patient-protective medical boards, would have either lost their licenses to practice or at least been given a more serious disciplinary action. Because they are practicing in Florida, many have escaped with fines or letters of reprimand or concern. Most of their patients likely are not aware of their offenses. Examples of doctors from the PUblic Citizen "Questionable Doctors" database who were disciplined but are currently allowed to continue practicing in FLorida include:
* A surgeon who operated in the wrong place in the body in October 2001. He was fined $5,000 and required to give a one-hour lecture on wrong-site surgery and take five hours of courses in risk management.
* A Florida physician who failed to recognize that on two occasions he had perforated a patient's uterus during an attempted abortion. In 1995, he was fined $3,000, required to take continuing medical education and placed on probation for 18 months.
* A physician who surrendered hi New York license in 1998 because he "practiced the profession fraudulently." Florida merely reprimanded him and fined him $2,000 for not reporting this to the Florida board.
* A Florida doctor who in 1996 was put on a 60-month probations, fined and reprimanded for having sex with a 23-year-old patient. Based on the Florida action, Pennsylvania in 1998 took the more stringent step of suspending his license for the duration of the Florida probation period.
* A doctor whose license was revoked by New York in 1995 because he was practicing negligent, substandard care. In 1997, based on the New York action, the Florida board merely put him on probation for 60 months and required him to take classes and be monitored.
* A doctor whose license was suspended in 1999 by Illinois because he had been suspended from admitting privileges to a hospital and had failed to notify the Illinois board. Florida merely reprimanded him and imposed a $1,000 fine.
Conclusion
Reducing compensation to victims of medical malpractice does not, as doctors contend, "reduce costs;" it merely shifts the costs of injuries away from unskilled doctors and unsafe hospitals and onto the injured patients, their families, and taxpayers.
To read Public Citizen's survey of state medical board Web sites, go to: http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=7168
-Public Citizen's Congress Watch
SAN FRANCISCO-A company that makes balloonlike devices to treat aneurysms pleaded guilt Thursday to covering up thousands of incidents in which the device malfunctioned and might have led to 12 deaths and 57 emergency surgeries nationwide.
- USA Today
A survey by the Harvard School of Public Health and the Kaiser Family Foundation HMO found that more than one-third of practicing physicians and 40 percent of the public have experienced a medical error in the care they or their family member received as a patient. (Source: U.S.A. Today for Dec. 12, 2002, p. 12D.) One-third of the doctors said they had seen a medical error in the past year. The survey was published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine with was released December 12, 2001.
-atfl.org
A complex operation called spinal fusion has emerged as the treatment of choice for many kinds of unrelenting back pain. A quarter million of the procedures, in which metal rods are screwed into the spine to weld it in place, were performed this year in the United States, three times as many as a decade ago.
But a number of researchers say there is little scientific evidence to show that for most patients, spinal fusion works any better than a simpler operation, the laminectomy. And Laminectomies get patients out of the hospital and back to their daily routine much faster. Some people, experts add, would be better off with no surgery at all. Even doctors who factor fusions say that more research is needed on their benefits.
Medicare can pay a surgeon as much as four times more for a spinal fusion, some doctors say, as for a laminectomy, an operation in which some bone is removed from the spine to relieve pressure on the spinal cord and nerves. Hospitals also collect two to four times as much, a gulf that has grown steadily as fusion operations have grown more complex.
Some sort of hardware is used in almost 90 percent of lower-back fusions, Mr. Mendenhall said, compared with fewer than half in 1996. Between Medicare and private insurers, the national bill for the hardware alone has soared to $2.5 billion a year, he said.
The hardware makers acknowledge giving surgeons millions of dollars in consulting fees, royalty payments and research grants, but say the money promotes technical and medical advances that improve back care.
Some former Medtronic employees, however, have accused the company of paying surgeons to use its products with offers of first-class plane tickets to Hawaii lucrative consulting contracts, the suit claimed, involved little or no work.
-New York Times
With growing evidence that most medical procedures for back pain are largely ineffective, patients are finding relief from a surprisingly simple treatment.
The back brace, re-engineered to make it more comfortable and effective, is making a comeback. A handful of new braces have been introduced in the past several months, with more expected this year. The braces are designed to ease the pressure on spinal disks that are often the source of lower-back pain.
The Orthotrac Pneumatic Vest, made by Orthofix International of Huntersville, N.C., also "unloads" pressure from the disk. But instead of shifting back support to the abdomen, the Orthotrac device introduced last year transfers the weight to the hips. The vest, which weighs about five pounds, uses an inflation device to push "lifters" up against the rib cage and down against the pelvis. It sounds od, but the gentle pressure is likened to a tight belt, and patients say it's mild compared with the discomfort of back pain.
-Wall Street Journal
In a development that is significantly changing the medical landscape, research is calling into question the value of a wide variety of common surgeries. Thanks to this research and advanced technology-as well as concern about higher health costs-doctors are telling many patients not to go under the knife for conditions that were once routinely treated that way.
In the process, a slew of different surgeries-for everything from back pain to gum disease-are being put under the microscope. It used to be for example, that someone who suffered a liver or kidney injury in a car accident had the organ removed. Now in nearly all cases, the patient is tracked but not operated on-and most of the time, recovers occurs naturally.
-Wall Street Journal
With medical malpractice insurance premiums climbing steeply, a growing number of physicians are taking a radical step: They're canceling their coverage altogether.
Many of the physicians going bare so far practice in Florida, which consistently has some of the highest malpractice insurance rates in the nation and is known for its activist doctors. More than 5% of Florida's roughly 47,700 active medical doctors don't have malpractice insurance coverage, up from 4% of doctors a year ago, according to Florida Department of Health Statistics. In Miami-Dade county, in South Florida, nearly 20% of the county's 6,360 active medical doctors are bare.
-Wall Street Journal
Most of the physicians nationwide going "bare," which means without med mal insurance coverage, are from Florida. The reason for this is that Florida has some of the highest med mal rates in the country and "is known for its activist doctors." Many of the docs that go bare are "sheltering assets in sophisticated trusts or partnerships, safely out of reach for legal judgments down the road." In Florida, doctors' homes and annuities are protected by state law from creditors. Some FL docs are making patients sign a waiver promising not to sue.
-aftl.org
The public has heard of some of the most insidious med mal cases, however, the headlines are only the tip of the iceberg. A landmark study recently found that 98,000 deaths a year are due to medical errors, "more than car accidents or breast cancer." Even though that number is strikingly high, the vast majority of medical errors go unreported. Plus, unlike the aviation industry, "close calls" are not documented. Even though physicians are mandated to tell hospitals when patients are harmed and hospitals are mandated to tell the state, "they don't always do".
- Miami Herald
If a doctor operates on a patient's wrong leg, the that info travels from the hospital to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. The information stays there until it is released in quarterly summaries. However, "the hospital in which the particular injury occurred is not identified." This non-disclosure policy has upset many patient advocates who wonder why the information is kept secret.
- Miami Herald
Chicago, Oct. 7- Postoperative infections, surgical wounds accidentally opening and other often-preventable complications lead to more that 32,000 U.S. hospital deaths and more that $9 billion in extra costs annually, a report suggests.
The single most important way you can help to prevent errors ito be an active member of your health care team. That means taking part in every decision about your health care. Research shows that patients who are more involved with their care extend to get better results.
-msnbc.com
Americans have only a slightly better that 50-50 chance their medical problems will be addressed in an optimal way when they visit a doctor's office or enter a hospital, according to a new survey.
It adds to the rapidly growing body of research showing a huge gap between what's known by medical scientists and what's done by medical practitioners.
In the area of counseling and health education, there was only a one-in-five chance a person would get everything experts say they should.
- Washington Post
An investigation by The Chicago Tribune, based on federal and state records, internal hospital files and court cases from the 5,810 institutions belonging to the American Hospital Association, estimated 103,000 deaths linked to hospital infections in 2000. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), extrapolating from a recent study of records from some 300 hospitals and other sources, estimated 90,000 deaths that year. Nearly three-quarters of the deadly infections-or about 75,000- were preventable, the result of unsanitary facilities, germ-laden instruments, unwashed hands and other lapses.
Astoundingly, deaths linked to hospital germs represent the fourth leading cause of mortality among Americans, behind major hear diseases, cancer, and lung ailments. These infections kill more people than motor-vehicle accidents and drowning combined.
- Chicago Tribune
Dr. Richard G. Roberts, chairman of the American Academy of Family Physicians and professor of Family Medicine at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, has issued hi "Top 10 Myths of Medical Malpractice" in which he lists 10 "Truths" about the civil justice system, including:
*"About one in 50 hospitalized patients is injured due to negligence, and yet only one tin 10 of those files a lawsuit and, among those filing suits, only one in 20 receives money..."
* "There is more malpractice committed than is recognized, litigated or compensated."
* "Plaintiffs in most cases are not 'gold digging.' The vast majority [of plaintiffs] have (medical) outcomes none of us would want for ourselves or our loved ones."
* "Judges and juries 'rule in favor of the physician from 70 to 75 percent of the time..."
-ATFL Journal
As trial lawyers, we understand that caps benefit the bottom line of big insurance companies at the expense of injured patients and their families. But reaching the press and public with this truth has been an uphill battle in the face of the insurance industry's relentless propaganda about "frivolous" lawsuits.
Preventable errors by medical providers in hospitals kill nearly 100,000 people in America every year. That's equivalent to three jumbo jet crashes every two days.
-Mary Alexander, Trial
Dangerous Drugs
Influenza viruses cause annual winter epidemics leading to an estimated 36,000 deaths in the United States each year. Annually, influenza is also responsible for hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations, tens of millions of workdays lost, and costs the U.S. economy tens to hundreds of billions of dollars.
In the United States, the influenza vaccine supply is produced completely by private manufacturers who independently determine the amount of vaccine produced each year based on demand during the previous flu season. For five years prior to this flue season, there has been an overproduction of vaccine, resulting in closes doses being discarded and money lost to manufacturers. Last year, 95 million doses were made and 12 million discarded, so only 83 million doses were manufactured this year.
The situation in Canada is considerably different. It has a National Health Insurance program that covers everyone in the country and enables the country to act as a large buying unit. The vaccine is purchased by the federal government for a negotiated prices, which is $2.68 per dose in U.S. dollars this year, or one-third what U.S. health departments usually pay.
-The Public Citizen Research Group Health Letter
Statement of Dr. Sidney Wolfe, Director of PUblic Citizen's Health Research Group
Today's announcement by the FDA to ban the dietary supplement ephedra, which comes more than two years after we petitioned the agency to do so, shows the dangerous cowardice of FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan and HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, who waited to act until receiving reports of more than 155 deaths of ephedra users instead of acting much earlier. All the scientific evidence and legal authority to ban ephedra was in place at the time of our petition, which we filed in September 2001. One reason major manufacturers have stopped selling ephedra is that the companies have become uninsurable because of massive losses in product liability cases. Several weeks ago, the last major manufacturer of ephedra dietary supplements - Metabolife - announced that it would no longer sell ephedra. When we filed our petition, there were reports of 81 ephedra-related deaths. Now, after that number has nearly doubled and very little ephedra is being manufactured, the FDA finally announces a ban. This is an inexcusable dereliction of responsibility by an agency that has acted more like an ephedra sales extension agency than the public health agency it is supposed to be.
-Public Citizen
New reports of deaths and severe injuries from liver failure in patients taking the antidepressant Serzone (nefazodone) require that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) act immediately to protect U.S. patients, Public Citizen said. Public Citizen submitted a supplement containing new data to its March 2003 petition requesting the withdrawal of this uniquely dangerous drug from the market.
-Public Citizen
In order to properly choose a nursing home for a loved one, family members should first ask for the state inspection report for the facility and contact the long-term care ombudsman. In addition, family members should take a tour of the facility, have a "frank" discussion with the administrator of the home and consult the Consumer Reports Updated Nursing Home "Watch List." The most common deficiencies found by the Consumers Union for nursing homes have been "failure to post state survey, deficiencies on calling doctors and cleanliness."
-CBSNews.com
In January 2000, in a nursing home in Washing ton, D.C., aide Keisha Holmes left an 89-year-old blind and completely dependant resident alone in a bathtub, while she styled another resident;s hair. Another employee found the elderly resident drowned in the tub, with water running into the hallway.
It took 26 months for the consequences to catch up with Holmes: In March 2002, she was arraigned on manslaughter charges fro the drowning. In the meantime, at another nursing home, she allegedly beat a 91-year-old resident who had resisted being helped into bed. She now faces simple assault charges in that case.
D.C. advocates for the elderly say the Holmes prosecution pre resents the first time in years that criminal charges have bee field in the city over physical abuse or neglect of a nursing home resident. And it is the kind of case that has attracted the attention of Congress, other federal authorities, and plaintiff attorneys seeking to remedy this growing problem.
Last year, the House Committee on Government Reform found almost 9,000 instances of nursing home resident abuse over two yards.
In September 2000 the GAO reported that HCFA had started requiring states to investigate complaints within 10 working days but that state agencies were not doing so consistently.
-News and Trends
A study performed by Wilkes& McHugh, a Tampa-based law firm "prominent in the nursing home field," has concluded that the number of law suits filed against FL nursing homes have dropped as a result of the 2001 reforms passed in the state legislature. The rim found that the number of lawsuits against nursing homes was down 17% from 2000, the year before the reforms were passed. With a new legislative session just around the corner, advocates for the elderly are arguing that the new legislation, known as SB 1202, is working and that no new reforms need to be passed. Advocates for more reform, however, argue that the study is meaningless because it only counts filed lawsuits and not notices of intent to file a lawsuit that are often settled before they get to court.
Tampa Tribune, Mike Salinero.
-aftl.org
If you find yourself making the decision to put a family member in a nursing home, this article contains tips from the Consumer Reports Complete Guide to Health Services for Seniors on how to pick a nursing home. Among the tips are ways to do research about homes and ways to determine whether not the home is safe.
St. Petersburg Times, Laura Coffey.
-aftl.org
Three years ago, state lawmakers "struck a deal to try to help (nursing homes) get insurance: if nursing homes would take better care of residents, the state would give them more money and help protect them from massive lawsuits." However, it seems this deal has unraveled. In his budget, Governor Bush plans to freeze spending on nursing homes and eliminate extra money "that was supposed to go towards hiring more nursing assistants, a key to improving care." Even though many homes throughout the state are operating with little insurance, and support some type of cap to cover the costs of running their homes." Both sides agree, however, that as the number nursing home assistants has increased, so has the quality of care.
Daytona Beach News Journal, Jim Saunders.
-aftl.org
The cost of staying in a nursing home is rising at nearly four times the rate of inflation.
-The Wall Street Journal
A pilot program created by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is not posting on the Internet detailed information about the quality of care delivered by 2,561 nursing home facilities in six states, including Florida, Colorado, Maryland, Ohio, Rhode, Island, and Washington. The program should be expanded to all 50 states by October. The ratings are based on an evaluation of each resident at least every 90 days, and they rate the facilities in nine"quality measures" adjusted for patient severity. These new ratings can be found at http://www.medicare.gov. Other detailed Florida nursing home information may be found on the site of the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration at http://www.fdhc.state.fl.us/Nursing_Home_Guide/index.shtml.
-ATFL Journal
The latest in a string of studies on the subject by the U.S. General Accounting Office, released in March, found that nurse aide registries – which are supposed to include lists of aides accused of abusing or neglecting residents – are not current and provide limited information. About 1.5 million elderly and disabled people live in almost 17,000 nursing homes in the country. Under the current system, federal, state, and local agencies – including law enforcement – investigate abuse allegations. Last year the House Committee on Government Reform found almost 9,000 instances of nursing home resident abuse over two years. A 1999 GAO report noted deficient oversight of quality of care. It also found weaknesses in states’ complaint investigations, annual inspection, and enforcement actions.
(Nursing Homes: Complaint Investigation Processes Often Inadequate to Protect Residents, GAO/HEHS-99-80 [Mar. 22, 1999]).
( WASHINGTON, May 2006) A coalition of safety, consumer and labor organizations has gone to court seeking to overturn trucking rules that allow drivers to stay behind the wheel for up to 14 hours a day.
Public Citizen, Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways (CRASH), Parents Against Tired Truckers (PATT) and others are challenging the hours-of-service rule, issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in both 2003 and 2005. Both rulings increase the number of hours truckers can drive in one day to 11 hours, even though government data shows fatigue-related crashes steadily increase after eight hours of driving.
Under the current ruling, a driver can work as many as 14 hours a day and up to 84 hours in seven days. That represents a 40 percent increase over the old limits.
The 2005 rule also fails to require electronic on-board data recorders to track the number of hours a trucker drives. The trucking industry relies on paper logbooks to track driving records.
“This new rule is simply another example of how the agency that regulates truck safety does little or nothing until it is forced to act, and then does the bare minimum to get by,” says Joan Claybrook, President of Public Citizen.
The coalition’s petition filed February 27, 2006 asks the court to review the 2005 hours-of-service rule issued August 2005, and is the first step to a legal challenge. See more at: http://www.citizen.org/autosafety/
A group of consumers who allege that they were ripped off by car salesmen, have filed suit against a number of dealerships stating that in nearly all of their contracts, "finance charges were manipulated, unapproved extras were slipped in and sometimes signatures were forged so the deals would sail through the banks." A former finance manager in Florida has stated that his specialty was "doctoring the credit application and making you feel good about paying 12, 14 percent interest when you could have gotten six." He added that he "got the banks to sign off on doctored applications by stuffing extras into contracts, then drawing up two different sets of paperwork."
-CBSNews.com
Before becoming a whistleblower, auto dealer Duane Overholt estimates that he bilked customers out of $33 million using tricks of the trade detailed in a new report.
Working at a dealership in Florida, Overholt admits that he used manipulative sales techniques, packed contracts with unnecessary add-ons and other tricks to gain as much profit as possible for each sale.
Public Citizen and Overholt released the report at a news conference and called for law enforcement to investigate the scams. Prior to the new conference, NBC's "Dateline" aired a hidden-camera investigation of dealership fraud.
The report shows that consumers may be defrauded at every step of the process. Dealers may boost the manufacturer's suggested retain price (MSRP) with extras, some of which may already be included in the MSRP. Sometimes they run credit reports without a customer's permission by using the driver's license provided to test drive a vehicle, thereby obtaining information to manipulate the buyer later in negotiation.
Dealers have ample opportunity to defraud consumers when the dealership, and not an independent bank or lender, arranges the financing. For example, dealers who have established relationships with banks may insist that a higher interest rate is the best deal available for the buyer and the dealers make more money on the loan.
Dealers also commonly use a technique called "leg" to increase their profits. Negotiating a monthly payment with the customer that is slightly above the amount needed to actually pay for the vehicle allows dealers to "stuff" additional products into the contract to justify the higher monthly payment. Those products can include extended warranties or maintenance programs the customer is unlikely to be aware of or use.
Public Citizen has launched www.autodealerscam.org, a new Web site that gives consumers tips on buying a vehicle, legal information, examples of scams and more. Visitors may also fill out a survey on experiences with auto dealers - information that will provide a better picture of just how widespread this fraud is and with permission will be made available to law enforcement.
-Public Citizen
WASHINGTON-The number of people killed in highway-traffic accidents rose to its highest level in more than a decade last year, fueled largely by an increase in deadly rollover accidents involving sport-utility vehicles and light trucks, the government said.
The latest numbers, presented by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, came as a group of state attorneys general, representing 40 states, accused auto makers of running misleading ads promoting the safety of SUV's. Both developments are likely to add new fuel to the debate over the safety of sport-utility vehicles.
Although the U.S. accident-fatality rate remained unchanged in 2002 at 1.51 for each 100 million vehicle miles traveled, the NHTSA noted that the number of deaths-42,850- was the highest since 1990. Fatalities in rollover crashes involving SUV's and pickup trucks accounted for 53% of the increase from 2001.
-Wall Street Journal
NEW YORK-Car accident victims without health insurance are more likely to die than people who have been hospitalized with insurance coverage, according to a new academic study.
It's generally assumed that one's health insurance status - at least in the emergency room - has little influence on the care received. But automobile accident victims in Wisconsin who lacked health coverage were %37 more likely to die from injuries than their insured counterparts, according to research released last week by Joseph J. Doyle Jr., an assistant professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Mass.
-Wall Street Journal
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal vehicle-safety regulator, yesterday released new rollover risk ratings for some 2004 model-year vehicles that take into account the agency's new track test, which for the first time measures a vehicle's handling in an emergency maneuver. Previously, the NHTSA's rollover rating-published on the agency's Web site www.safecar.com - were based on a mathematical formula using the vehicle's dimensions. Auto makers complained that those math-based "static stability" ratings were unfair since they didn't measure how the vehicle actually handled on the road which effects its chances of rolling over.
-The Wall Street Journal
Here is a basic list of what you should know about the losses your homeowner’s insurance does and does not cover. Always check your individual policy.
Covered:
Not Covered:
Birds, vermin, rodents or insects
Over the past year, homeowners insurers have gotten much stricter about who and what they will cover, as they try to turn around a business line which suddenly has become a huge money loser. That effort, which began with refusing to insure houses that had histories of water damage or multiple claims of any sort, is now spreading to a crack down on some of the staple of suburban life. Among the targets: trampolines, swimming pools (especially those with diving boards) and even the family pet.
-The Wall Street Journal
Citizens, the insurer of last resort in Florida, is excluding any claims of animal liability due in part to recent high jury verdicts for dog bite cases. Separate policy coverage must be purchased to be covered.
Dogs bite an estimated 4.7 million people in the U.S. every year, 800-thousand seriously enough to require medical attention. About 40% of victims are children.
As a result, some other insurance companies, including Allstate and Farmers Insurance Group won’t cover homes in certain states if a certain breed of dog is present.
The so-called “vicious breed” list includes such popular dogs as German shepherds, Akitas, Siberian huskies, Rottweilers, Alaskan Malamutes, Chow Chows, Doberman Pinchers, American pit bull terrier and their cousins and Presa Canarios, the fighting breed whose California owners were convicted of manslaughter in a 2001 fatal mauling attack. More at: http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114912737443568263-Hq_KQxgB_0mJap
txnDLDtzkVjaQ_20060630.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top
( PAHOKEE, FL, June 24, 2006) - Engineers are racing this hurricane season to restore the dike around Lake Okeechobee after a recent study finds the aging earthen wall is in imminent danger of failing.
A recent study by a panel of state-hired experts finds the compromised dike could threaten up to 60 thousand residents. After Hurricane Katrina submerged portions of New Orleans, restoring the nearly 80 year old dike has taken on a new urgency.
Shoring up the 730-square mile Herbert Hoover Dike will take the Army Corp of Engineers an estimated 25 years and cost more than $400 million. The Corp is replacing flood gates and culverts and rebuilding the dike by reinforcing walls with a cement mixture 36 feet deep and two feet thick.
(TALLAHASSEE, May 20, 2006) - Expect to see double-digit insurance premium rate hikes for homeowners insured by Citizens Property Insurance Corp., In May, Florida insurance officials approved state-backed Citizens’ two-step request to raise prices for those living east of Interstate 95 in south Florida where Citizens is the largest property insurer. The Florida Legislature ordered the company to charge high enough premiums to cover losses during a major hurricane. Increases are expected again in September.
Meanwhile in Florida, State Farm has just asked for a 70% hike in rates. It is canceling all 1,500 condominium association policies January 1 st and transferring wind coverage on 39-thousand homes in coastal areas to Citizens property Insurance Corp., the Florida insurer of last resort.
Allstate says it’s dropping about a third of its Florida policyholders. Insurers blame the rate they pay for reinsurance which has doubled following two devastating hurricane seasons.
More at: http://www.floir.com/
More on Wall Street Journal online see: http://www.realestatejournal.com/buysell/taxesandinsurance/20060509-mcqueen.html
There is a myth that as a result of last year’s Katrina insurance companies have been going out of business. The Wall Street Journal reports that insurers have a surplus of assets in the $400 billion range while having to shell out $15 to $35 million in Katrina-related payments.
Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal’s online publication RealEstateJournal.com reports that flooding ranks as the most common natural disaster in the U.S. even in states with no oceanfront property. Pennsylvania had more flood-insurance claims in 2004 than any state except Florida.
Despite last year’s record hurricane season, a Rand Corp research report finds 40 percent of private homes in high-risk areas in southern and western states remain uninsured against flooding.
In Florida, the Office of Insurance Regulation estimates that two-thirds of families do not have flood coverage. It’s estimated about half of single-family homes located in high-flood risk zones do not have flood insurance. Others wrongly assume their standard homeowner’s policy will cover a flood related loss.
Most private insurers don’t even offer flood insurance. Check out your options at FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. However, the government-backed policies have their shortcomings. Coverage includes a maximum $250 thousand for a home’s structure and $100 thousand coverage for contents. Basements are generally excluded if they are in a high-risk zone. Your cost of living if displaced is also not covered.
For more on your insurance options check out: www.fema.gov.
WSJ online: http://www.realestatejournal.com/buysell/taxesandinsurance/20050909-francis.html
Our area has the dubious distinction of leading the state in power plant mercury emission. Florida ranked 11 th in the country for the highest levels of mercury emissions almost all coming from coal-turning power plants and Duval County lead the state in emissions with 21% of the state’s total power plant mercury emission, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
JEA was the largest power plant mercury emitter in the state in 2003 according to the agency.
Mercury is a highly toxic heavy metal that is ingested by humans through consuming fish which absorb it from polluted oceans, rivers and lakes. Consumers of seafood are recommended to eat fish from a variety of waters and not consumer the same kind of fish more than once a week. Closely following this controversy is: www.publiccitizen.com
No other issue has generated more public comment that proposed regulations on mercury emissions by the Environmental Protection Agency in January 2004. The Clean Air Act had required mercury emissions be cut by 90-95% by 2007. However the Bush administration proposed an approach in which polluters, generally coal-burning power plants, can trade mercury pollution rights among themselves. The “cap and trade rule” allows power plants to buy and trade the right to pollute and delays even modest mercury reductions until the year 2018.
There is something you can do to help reduce smelly green algae blooms that cover much of the St Johns River each summer and turn its beauty into a regional eyesore. The blooms come from nutrient overload from nitrogen and phosphorus. The St. Johns River cannot dilute the nutrients that deplete oxygen used by fish and threaten the health of aquatic life. The St. Johns Riverkeeper organization is suggesting you invest in “River Friendly Yards.” That includes maintaining and introducing native plants especially along the river; preventing pesticides, yard trimmings and fertilizers from entering storm drains; seek out alternatives to chemical fertilizers and pesticides on the website www.stjohnsriverkeeper.org Ask if your lawn service has pesticide-free program and use mulch and repair leaking septic systems.
The Child Safety Seat industry unfortunately spends more resources convincing our regulators that they need meet only minimum standards than on research and design of enhanced and superior products. Continue to look for a five-point harness in rear facing infant seats and “convertible” seats that can be either rear facing or forward facing for toddlers. Be wary of child safety seats you might get from a second-hand store that rely on an outdated "shield" that restrains the child only with a lap belt.
Social Host Liability allows party hosts to be sued for serving alcohol to underage persons. The test is whether the party host knows or should have known that alcohol was being served. In states that have social host liability laws, studies show underage people are less likely to drink heavily and drive according to MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving. This is most likely due to the fact that some one-third to one half of underage drinkers obtain alcohol from adults. While Florida has yet to establish a social host rule, an adult who fails to take reasonable steps to stop alcohol consumption by minors at an open house party is liable both civilly and criminally.
Social Host Liability allows party hosts to be sued for serving alcohol to underage persons. The test is whether the party host knows or should have known that alcohol was being served. In states that have social host liability laws, studies show underage people are less likely to drink heavily and drive according to MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving. This is most likely due to the fact that some one-third to one half of underage drinkers obtain alcohol from adults. While Florida has yet to establish a social host rule, an adult who fails to take reasonable steps to stop alcohol consumption by minors at an open house party is liable both civilly and criminally.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. lost a Supreme Court bid to overturn a judgment awarded to the widow of a Sarasota, Fla. teacher who died of lung cancer. The big cigarette maker had already paid the $195,000 judgment while the appeal was pending. It was the first time the company paid damages in an individual product-liability lawsuit and made RJR only the second U.S. cigarette maker to pay a jury award in a case about cancer.
The tobacco industry lost a round in its bid to win dismissal of a Justice Department lawsuit seeking $289 billion for an alleged conspiracy to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kesler declined to dismiss racketeering charges against the tobacco companies.
The tobacco companies had argued before Judge Kessler that the government knew about smoking dangers for years and did little or nothing, and in some cases actively encouraged conduct that is critical to the Justice Department lawsuit. For example, the companies said the government encouraged development of low-tar cigarettes and is now using that work as evidence of the alleged tobacco-industry conspiracy.
The case will go forward without those defenses in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The suit seeks $289 billion in damages, as well as more marketing restrictions and tougher health warnings.
-Wall Street Journal
Most provisions of the new Worker's Compensation Act, Chapter 2003-412, Laws of Florida, took effect October 1, 2003. The ATFL and and the Florida Workers Advocates (FWA) believe that many provisions of this new act are unconstitutional. In fact, the entire act may be unconstitutional. The AFTL and FWA have established a joint Constitutional Challenge Committee to advise and assist lawyers in preserving the constitutional issues in their cases. The Committee is Chaired by Ray Maleca.
The Committee is most interested in learning about cases where accidents occur after October 1, 2003, and involve facts similar to those in the following fact patterns:
1. A clearly comprehensible case where there is no valid dispute as to entitlement to compensation or medical benefits but those benefits are denied forcing the worker to obtain the services of an attorney who spends considerable time in obtaining what should have been provided voluntarily and can only be compensated at the statutory amount even though the employer/carrier's attorney can be fully paid for their services in defending a claim which could have been paid without the need for counsel.
2. A Turner-type case, where the employer intentionally harms an employee by sending or directing the employee into a situation where there is substantial certainty that the employee will be killed or injured. See Turner v. PCR, Inc. 754 So.2d 683 ( Fla. 2000).
-AFTL Journal
Lakeland Representative Dennis Ross, Lt. Governor TOny Jennings and Senator Charlie Clary who led the way to an insurance friendly worker's compensation law taking effect October 1, 2003. Despite every major newspaper in Florida's warning that this new law would not reduce premiums or make coverage available for small employers, House Speaker Byrd and Senate President King caved in to Governor Bush's demand to pass workers' compensation legislation that dramatically decreased injured workers' benefits and their attorney's fees.
-AFTL Journal
Governor Bush addressed a crowd of rallying homebuilders yesterday expressing his support for an overhaul of the workers' compensation system. Bush said the goal was to reduce rates by 15% by limiting attorney's fees, creating a dispute resolution system, and removing certain exemptions.
- St. Petersburg Times
A large amount of "pricey special-interest amendments" worked to bog down a House bill originally designed to provide workers' compensation relief to Florida businesses. The Committee's bill needed to provide a method to lower workers' compensation premiums, but many believe that the bill as it stands will not do so.
- Tampa Tribune
Governor Bush has outlined the workers' compensation plan that he wants from the legislature and it includes 15% insurance rate rollback. Critics feel this is odd because the Governor is opposed to a rate roll back for med mal insurance premiums.
- Palm Beach Post
The Greater Daytona Beach YMCA got notice this year that its workers' compensation coverage would be cancelled, forcing them to pick up a more expensive policy. Non-profit orgs are especially vulnerable to insurance rate increases because they rely on tax dollars and donations to apply for operations, which makes it hard for them to absorb rate increases.
- Daytona Beach News Journal
HB 25A is "grotesquely one-sided," and it should not be passed because of pressure by Governor Bush, House Speaker Byrd, and Senate President King. With benefits to workers already low, the Legislature took the wrong approach in reforming WC and should revisit the issue in the next special session.
- St. Petersburg Times
The Legislature should be "embarrassed with the reform packages they are about to vote on" and should not vote on it because it takes away the intent of the WC law. With no guarantees that reform will lower rates, EC reform remains undone."
- Orlando Sentinel
WC bill takes away benefits and cuts back on the rights of workers to get those benefits that remain. The bill is based on bad information "cooked up" by the insurance industry, and lawmakers know it. This leaves the fate of workers "hanging on the arrogance and ignorance of the FL House."
- Daytona Beach News Journal
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Contact Eddie Farah and the Farah and Farah legal team to learn more about recent developments in personal injury, medical malpractice, and product liability law.
Farah and Farah, P.A.
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