Can ChatGPT craft a legal demand letter? Yes. A Medical Justice member on the west coast recently received a legal demand letter. I cannot prove it was crafted by a large language model. But it does not appear to have been written by a lawyer. At all. Some background. A plastic surgeon performed a breast … Read more
Assume you have a mostly elective practice. You still have hospital privileges, but most work you do is performed in an outpatient surgery center. You are technically on the call schedule. You rarely get called. Most calls can be handled by having the patient see you in your office the following day. Until… A patient … Read more
Stem cells offer tremendous promise. Some clinicians have put the cart before the horse, selling the treatments after making bold claims. There’s a lot of money to be made servicing the demand. Here, the Federal Trade Commission and Georgia Attorney General said enough is enough. This is how the case was captioned. CIVIL ACTION NO. … Read more
Physicians regularly complete new and renewal applications for all sorts of things. Medical licenses. Hospital privileges. Employment. In-network status with insurance carriers. Professional liability coverage. The list is long. The longer you have been in practice, the more complicated the applications. The questions cast a wide net. As exemplified in an Ohio Appellate case, Zedaker … Read more
It’s not easy being a physician. I won’t catalogue the challenges here. As Frank Sinatra once pined in “My Way”, “Regrets, I’ve had a few.” He continued, “But then again, too few to mention.” One of the main “perks” becomes obvious when you are sick. Or a loved one becomes sick. Or a friend or … Read more
Each year when I renew my medical license, I am asked if I want to make a voluntary donation to the state Professionals Health Program (PHP). Well, what is a PHP program? They go by different names in different states, but the concept is the same. In North Carolina, its mission is as below: Our … Read more
Professional liability policies include a list of exclusions. It will not pay out for such exclusions. One exclusion related to a contention of “Sexual Conduct.” Exclusion: “Liability arising from any Claim that includes contentions or descriptions of Sexual Conduct by you or anyone for whom you may be legally responsible.” That policy defines Sexual Conduct … Read more
Utah’s new law on informed consent & transgender care for minors may have unintended consequences for surgeons Buyer’s remorse. We’ve all had it. Who hasn’t wanted a do-over? Assorted states acknowledge it. In North Carolina, certain purchases trigger a “right to cancel.” There are others. These made the list because the Attorney General’s office received … Read more
If you are a physician trying to protect your medical practice from false claims online and to bolster your reputation, you have several review-building program options—eMerit from Medical Justice (that’s us!), Birdeye, Weave, and Reputation Defender are some of the big ones. eMerit vs. Other Review-Building Programs While competitors promise some of the same core … Read more
America is the land of second chances. Many years ago, if you could not pay your debts, you could be moved to a debtor’s prison. Even in the US. Many Colonial American jurisdictions established debtors’ prisons using the same models used in Great Britain. James Wilson, a signatory to the Declaration of Independence, spent some … Read more
