Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD
Another Example of the Importance of Experts
Michael J. Sacopulos, Esq. Earlier this month a Galveston County Texas Judge dismissed a medical malpractice claim against Mainland Center Hospital. The malpractice action had been brought by Jim Howard, III. Howard alleged that the emergency room staff at Mainland Center Hospital broke his femur in March of 2009. Howard’s action was originally filed on … Read more
Major Development at Google Places and Handling of Patient Reviews
Tom Seery, CEO, RealSelf
First announced in the technology blog techcrunch, Google made a significant change this week to the way patient reviews of doctors (and all local businesses) get displayed in Google Places. This has important implications for online doctor reputations.
Prior to this week, reviews from 3rd party sites were used to develop an aggregate number of postings and star rating for a doctor. Ratings were pulled in from services like Vitals, RateMD, HealthGrades, Yelp and dozens of others. Most SEO experts had posited that the reviews aggregated in a Google Places listing impacted a doctor’s ranking in Google search results. Hence, many doctors instituted programs where they asked patients to add reviews to these rating sites.
Break Out The Champagne
Jeff Segal, MD, JD, FACS
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
On July 25th, the North Carolina House of Representatives overrode the Governor’s veto of substantive tort reform. The North Carolina Senate overrode the veto last week. The bill will now become law.
This effort began decades ago and was finally realized this week. Most notable is the cap on non-economic damages. The law caps these damages at $500,000. This is considerably higher than other states that have passed reforms – such as California and Texas. But, it removes the uncertainty from what was previously the status quo – where the sky was the limit.
The bill was designed to balance the interest of injured patients with those of practicing physicians.
Survey Says and Says and Says
Jeff Segal, MD, JD, FACS
I doubt that lately, few subjects have been studied, discussed or argued as much as the effects that frivolous lawsuits have on the nation’s healthcare system. This summer, three more studies looked at this problem from various vantage points.
First, Jackson Healthcare investigated whether physicians working under contract with the federal government practice less defensive medicine than their private sector peers. As a reminder, as if anyone really needed one, defensive medicine describes ordering medically unnecessary tests, treatments or consultations to avoid malpractice lawsuits. The results?
It Seems Everything is Bigger in Texas
Michael J. Sacopulos, Esq.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court of Texas ruled that the medical malpractice statutes of the state cover a patient’s death from a spider bite. Classie Reed was a patient at the Omaha Health Care Center when she was bitten by a brown recluse spider. The spider bite ultimately resulted in Ms. Reed’s death. At issue is whether the claim was one that resided in medical malpractice or in ordinary negligence.
Medical Board of California – Fraud Alert
From the Medical Board of California The Board has been advised that several physicians in the Los Angeles area have been contacted by an individual impersonating an Investigator with the Medical Board of California. The individual asks physicians for their social security number and a credit card number, threatening cancellation of their license. This individual … Read more
Patient Bills Her Doctor For Making Her Wait
Jeff Segal, MD, JD, FACS
CNN.com recently reported the case of Elaine Farstad. An IT specialist from Everett, WA, who became angry when her physician was late for a scheduled appointment, Ms. Farstad calculated her hourly wage rate and billed her doctor for the time she had to wait – to the tune of $100. Interestingly, her doctor sent her a check for the full amount.
In fact, many practitioners are now using cash, gifts or credit for future appointments to “compensate” patients for time spent in waiting rooms.
Hedge Funds Financing Medical Malpractice Suits
Playing The Odds: Hedge Funds Finance Medical Malpractice Claims Has Wall Street gone too far? Forbes.com Medical Justice CEO Jeff Segal, MD, JD, FACS, General Counsel Mike Sacopulos and Wayne Oliver, Vice President of the Center for Health Transformation examine an alarming new trend – financing malpractice suits through hedge funds. “Investors are always looking … Read more
Physician-Rating Websites are Biased in Picking Doctors, Exaggerating Consumer Opinions, Says Paper
School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota Paper: Physician-Rating Websites are Biased in Picking Doctors, Exaggerating Consumer Opinions, Says Paper to be Presented at INFORMS Healthcare Conference June 2011
For several years, Medical Justice has made the case that most doctor rating sites have several fundamental flaws; many lack statistically a significant sample size of patient ratings which impacts the quality of information available to consumers. Doctors see between 1,000 to 3,000 patients a year, depending on specialty. Yet, most doctors only have a handful of online ratings. A paper, “The Information Value of Online Physician Ratings”, being presented at a healthcare conference sponsored by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®) supports this point.
“The Information Value of Online Physician Ratings” is co-authored by Ritu Agarwal, professor of information systems and director of the Center for Health Information and Decision Systems, Guodong “Gordon” Gao, assistant professor, and PhD candidate Brad Greenwood, of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, along with Jeffrey McCullough of the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota.
The authors investigated potential biases among Internet users rating general practitioners on websites. In particular, the study looked at which doctors patients chose to rate, how they rated those doctors and the intensity of the patients’ opinions.
Agarwal states, that physicians are concerned whether “these ratings a true measure of clinical quality.” Or are they just the rantings of a disgruntled minority.
