Access To Justice

News developments that we’ll be watching here at Sokolove Law:

Nursing home patients and their families are among the winners in the aftermath of the historic passage of the health care reform bill, according to a non-profit group that advocates for long-term care residents.

The new legislation will create more choices and greater transparency for consumers, according to the NCCNH (formerly the National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform). “The health care reform bill will give consumers more choices about where and how they receive long-term care and services, and every long-term care setting—from one’s nursing home to one’s own home—will be safer when it is implemented,” said NCCNHR executive director Sarah F. Wells in a statement.

Several bills incorporated in the new legislation – including the Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act, the Elder Justice Act, and the Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act – were championed by the NCCNHR.

Under the legislation, consumers will be able to get access to important nursing home safety data such as accurate information about staffing levels and turnover rates, sanctions against facilities, and inspection reports. It also will help improve training of nursing home staff and extend public coverage of long-term care beyond nursing homes.

Toyota warned dealers of accident risks related to improperly installed floor mats as long ago as 2007, according to a report from Reuters.  Toyota sent a “technical service bulletin” about the problem in 2007 and 2008 to its dealers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The bulletins were more explicit about the risk of a crash than any public announcements later made by the carmaker or federal regulators, writes the news service. Sending such notices to dealers to address safety problems is an industry practice that is now under scrutiny in the aftermath of the recent recalls by Toyota and other automakers, according to Reuters.

Long-term use of osteoporosis drugs such as Fosamax and Reclast does not significantly increase the risk of hip fracture, according to a study published yesterday by the New England Journal of Medicine. The study’s leader, Dr. Dennis Black of the University of California, San Francisco, told the Associated Press that the drugs prevent more fractures than they cause. The drugs, known as bisphosphonates, are taken by millions of American women. Some case reports have tied the drugs to a rare type of hip fracture, writes the AP.

There’s an old piece of advice that has almost become cliché:  when drinking alcohol, never discuss politics or religion.  It’s generally good advice.

That said, I sometimes find myself at cocktail parties, and people (knowing what I do for a living) ask me about tort reform, and challenge me to defend the current system.  I think I hold my own in these discussions, but sometimes it’s helpful to have the right talking points.

That’s exactly what Trial Magazine provided in its August issue.  The article, titled: Cocktail-party comebacks to tort ‘reform’ talk (subscription required) is a simple essay debunking the myths on tort reform.

First, the obvious charge:  “Large verdicts are awarded by runaway juries, (and) medical negligence lawsuits raise the cost of healthcare and drive doctors out of business”.  The article then outlines a number of statistics that should be helpful in debunking this myth.  Here’s a sampling:

1.    Judges don’t think frivolous lawsuits are a problem. In fact of 278 judges surveyed, 70 percent said “groundless lawsuits” were a small problem, or a very small problem, and 15 percent said they were “no problem at all.”
2.    The number of doctors is increasing. In fact, the AMA found that the number of doctors has increased in every state for years.  In 46 states, the growth has been faster than the overall population.
3.    High malpractice premiums are not related to lawsuits. To be sure, malpractice premiums have been going up, but Trial reported that this increase has more to do with Insurance companies struggling to deal with investment losses, than medical malpractice claims.  In fact, one study found that over a five year period, malpractice insurance premiums had increased drastically, even as malpractice claim payments remained flat, or in some cases decreased.

There’s much more in the article, but the bottom line is that the facts are not on the side of the insurance lobby.  Medical malpractice lawsuits remain an important safety net for compensating victims of health care providers’ negligence.  For more information, click here.