Here’s the story from the Kaiser news outlet.

When Malpractice Occurs at Community Health Centers, Taxpayers Pay

“People should know if these doctors or centers are harming their patients,” said Deirdre Gilbert, national director of the nonprofit National Medical Malpractice Advocacy Association, a consumer advocacy group.

In addition, attorneys who have represented plaintiffs in lawsuits against health centers say federal rules handcuff patients with a short statute of limitations — two years — and do not allow punitive damages.

“The deck is stacked in the government’s favor,” said Regan Safier, a Philadelphia attorney who won a $41.6 million court judgment in 2018 in a case of a birth injury involving a community health center doctor.

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Stark, Quality Fraud, and CMS

CMS is trying to change some of that and the new rules are beginning to go into effect. One of those rules allows to consumers to comparison shop medical billing and reimbursement practices. Here is the link to the CMS page:

CMS Announcement of Medical Expense Transparency for US Consumers

The new rules are far broader than those that went into effect last year requiring hospitals to post their negotiated rates for the public to see. Now insurers must post the amounts paid for “every physician in network, every hospital, every surgery center, every nursing facility,” said Jeffrey Leibach, a partner at the consulting firm Guidehouse.

“When you start doing the math, you’re talking trillions of records,” he said. The fines the federal government could impose for noncompliance are also heftier than the penalties that hospitals face.

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Judge Denies Sarasota Hospital and Lee Health Motion Intervene in Opioid Settlement

I’ve discussed on this blog Lee Memorial’s charter and how Lee Memorial built a government health care monopoly in Lee County, Florida. A link to one of those posts is found below.

Lee Health’s Government Monopoly & Quality Fraud

Accountability is good. It is right and proper that opioid manufacturers pay the full cost of their misconduct. At the same time, however, it is a little galling to see two public hospitals profiting at both ends of this crisis when those same hospitals claim sovereign immunity damage caps for damages caused by their own negligence.

The post Lee Health Loves Damage Caps, But Only for Itself. Everyone Else Is Expected to Pay Full Freight. appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

#QualityFraud

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#QualityFraud

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Interesting question: How does a non-profit suffer a 25% drop in profit and still earn a 3% profit (according to its own numbers)

“Ben Spence, the organization’s chief financial officer, said Lee Health will likely see an operating margin (or profit) of 2.9 percent by the end of the budget year on Sept. 30, compared to 4 percent last year — a 25 percent drop.”

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