The Obama administration’s effort at health-care reform-known as the Affordable Care Act, or ACA-has an image problem. Virtually every poll asking Americans what they think of its provisions demonstrates not only widespread disapproval, but widespread ignorance. Some pundits attribute our collective misunderstanding to the administration’s inept efforts to publicize the program’s features, some attribute it….
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For Medicare Advantage Plans, an Over-Abundance of Choices
Another clarion call to simplify a program so critical to the welfare of so many Americans was sounded earlier this month in a report published online by Health Affairs. It concluded that when faced with numerous Medicare Advantage plans, older Americans were less likely to enroll than if their choice of plans was more limited…..
Continue ReadingMalpractice Insurance Companies Fight Over Every Dollar
Never underestimate the doggedness of an insurance company in guarding its own treasury from malpractice claimants. Even when the patient wins, you can often count on a multi-year battle in the appeals courts to collect what you are owed. For our firm’s client Sharon Burke, an eleven-year odyssey has finally ended in her favor, after….
Continue ReadingTort reform won’t address huge regional disparities in malpractice insurance fees
Physician groups and health insurers often blame excessive malpractice settlements for the high rates that doctors have to pay to obtain malpractice liability insurance. But a recent analysis indicates that regional differences may play an even more significant role in determining malpractice insurance rates. According to a recent analysis by Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, a BC/BS….
Continue ReadingGeorgia physicians must reveal if they don’t have malpractice insurance
It’s bad enough when a treatment goes so wrong a patient has to sue to get financial compensation for the physician’s malpractice, but what if the physician has no liability insurance and the judgment can’t be collected? For Georgia residents, this no longer poses a problem, because under a new law that may be the….
Continue ReadingSavings from malpractice reform are a myth, study shows
Malpractice claims are not out of control and a damages cap would not result in big insurance savings for doctors and hospitals, according to a new study of malpractice insurance in New York state. The study comes as lawmakers across the nation are under pressure to enact tight restrictions on the rights of medical malpractice….
Continue ReadingCritical reception for study claiming malpractice laws chase docs from Illinois
Half of all graduating medical residents or fellows trained in Illinois are leaving the state to practice elsewhere, according to a new study, which seems to indicate that as many as 50% of the state’s medical school graduates are turned off by the “toxic” malpractice environment. Critics, however, say the study is just another attempt….
Continue ReadingMedical Malpractice Is a Leading Cause of Preventable Death in District of Columbia
Deaths from preventable medical error kill as many people in the nation’s capital as guns, and far more than motor vehicle crashes, according to a new report from the D.C. Department of Health. The report, the first of its kind in the District of Columbia, analyzed the 5,168 total deaths reported to health officials in….
Continue ReadingHealth Insurance Reform and the “Death Spiral”
It ought to be so easy. Congress waves its magic wand, makes it illegal for health insurers to discriminate against sick people by charging them higher premiums or excluding their “pre-existing conditions,” and voila, there you have it — reform that everyone wants. But here’s the downside, and here is why health insurance reform is….
Continue ReadingSave the Children: Universal Health Care as a Moral Issue
A new study documents how lack of health insurance can be fatal to sick children — not because they are denied care once they get to the hospital, but because they get into the care system too late. Researchers at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center crunched the numbers of two decades’ worth of children’s hospitalizations —….
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