Can you prescribe for family? What happens if a payer demands a refund three years later? Our Legal Blogs tackle routine yet critical issues—self-prescribing, contract renewals, sham peer review defenses, and medical record ownership—using real complaints, board orders, and court opinions as teaching tools.
When an appellate court clarifies peer-review immunity or a state supreme court limits punitive damages, we translate the opinion into practical next steps: adjust bylaws language, revisit informed-consent language, or refine incident-reporting practices. Posts avoid dense legalese and focus on how rulings might influence documentation, credentialing, and professional liability.
From negotiating call-coverage stipends to spotting restrictive non-compete clauses, articles guide physicians through employment and partnership contracts. We also examine corporate-practice-of-medicine rules, covering management-service agreements, fee-splitting prohibitions, and telemedicine ownership structures.
The blog discusses board investigations stemming from social-media missteps, substance-use allegations, and documentation irregularities. We help physicians respond promptly, assemble supportive records, and protect due-process rights.
Expect discussions of Stark, Anti-Kickback Statute safe harbors, Medicare enrollment revocations, and false-claims liability—presented with examples relevant to office-based specialists and hospital-employed physicians alike.
“Even when she was gone, she was present in the patient sitting before me and in the way I was newly able to comfort and reassure her.” Dr. Joseph Stern, a neurosurgeon, wrote a moving piece published in the NY Times, about how his sister’s recent fight with cancer impacted him. The process of sitting … Read more
In 2017, a high profile medical malpractice highlighted what is euphemistically known as “overlapping surgery.” Before plodding ahead, let’s get our terms straight. The American College of Surgeons defines operations as concurrent “when the critical or key components of the procedures for which the primary attending surgeon is responsible are occurring all or in part at the same time” and as overlapping “when the key or critical elements of the first operation have been completed, and … a second operation … Read more
On occasion, complex systems crumble because of a single defective part, a part no one anticipated. The space shuttle Challenger is a case in point. What happened? O-rings failed at 31 degrees, the temperature at Cape Canaveral at launch. That led to a cascade of badness which resulted in the Challenger exploding. Some at NASA … Read more
We continue with our series of articles penned by one attorney, an MD, JD, giving you a view of the world through a malpractice plaintiff attorney’s eyes. In this article, the author addresses “Assumption of risk versus informed consent..” This attorney is a seasoned veteran. The series includes a number of pearls on how to … Read more
Skydiving is dangerous. Most skydivers land safely. But, not all. And if your chute does not timely open (and properly), death or injury are likely. How is it skydiving facilities are rarely sued? And, if they are sued, the facility usually prevails. There’s a legal defense known as “assumption of risk.” The skydiver presumably knows that skydiving is a dangerous … Read more
There’s an old joke regarding different cultures’ interpretation as to when a fetus is considered alive. The broadest definition of the beginning of life pinpoints the date at conception. Others target a later date – namely, viability outside the womb. But, the longest delay for the ‘beginning of life” is when the “person” graduates from medical school. I hear two stories from … Read more
Skeptical Scalpel publishes an excellent blog. He recently tackled the topic of whether the public even understands how to interpret surgical complication rates and surgeon report cards. He graciously gave us permission to distribute his post. Read on. Some data is better than no data at all Do you believe that? I heard it frequently when … Read more
Plaintiff’s attorneys frequently argue there is no way a seasoned attorney would take a meritless med mal case. They note that taking such cases to trial to case is expensive. They take such cases on contingency. If they lose, they lose big. And they would be the party bearing the out-of-pocket risk. Now, the market … Read more
In the mid-1990s, Dr. Samuel Pallin patented a type of stitch-less cataract surgery procedure. He attempted to license the patent to other ophthalmologists. One such surgeon was Dr. Jack Singer. Singer not only refused the demand for royalties, but started a broad political movement against medical procedure patents. Singer argued he actually devised the procedure before Pallin’s patent was filed. Pallin said he was not interested in the money, but recognition. Pallin had … Read more
Most physicians defer to patients’ wishes as to how they want to be called. It’s a sign of deferential respect. If there’s a 40-year age discrepancy between a young treating physician and an elderly Medicare patient, the senior likely doesn’t want to be called Pops. There’s a brewing brouhaha in California related to Senate Bill 219 which … Read more
