A Landmark Decision for Patient Safety and Our Role In It

A week ago, the Florida Supreme Court decided Charles v. Baptist, a medical malpractice case filed by my Father in Duval County (Jacksonville). As is often the case, the result is rightfully credited to an army of skilled lawyers – most of them fronting their time and their money on behalf of a relatively powerless […]

Quality Fraud by Omission

More Than Half of Failed Clinical Trials Unpublished   Less than half of failed clinical trials are published in peer review journals, according to a new study. Practically, this may be due to the fact that there are no sponsors or financial stakeholders willing to contribute to a public relations push when their new ‘wonder […]

Recent History of Public Healthcare in Lee County, Florida

Last week, this blog reviewed the origins of the public Lee Memorial Hospital. After its formation by the government, as the municipal Hospital System exerted its authority over healthcare in Lee County, the Federal Trade Commission brought an Anti-Trust action against it for creating a monopoly. Lee Memorial was represented by the Jones, Day law firm in […]

Lee Memorial and Quality Fraud

In the last weekly blog, we learned that medical error is the third leading cause of death: “Metrics For A New ‘Patient Centric Safety Movement’”. Since the IOM and Johns-Hopkins studies referenced there, the news has grown worse: The Washington Post now reports medical errors are the third leading cause of death. Quality Fraud is a […]

Metrics For A New ‘Patient-Centric’ Safety Movement

According to the Institute of Medicine in the 1990’s, an estimated 100,000 people died as a result of medical mistakes every year in the U.S. (a number that has more than doubled, according to a new study by Johns Hopkins University). The Institute of Medicine (IOM) is a Congressionally mandated, non-profit research body. Their initial […]

Quality Fraud Drives Medical and Insurance Costs Up

In 1999, HHS announced 371 criminal indictments for health care billing fraud, up 61% from the previous year[1]. DOJ convicted 396 Defendants for health care fraud, filed 2,278 civil matters relating to health care fraud and excluded 2,976 providers from billing Federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid as a result of fraud[2]. These cases included […]

Some Child Left Behind

Five-year-old Abby Muszynski was born with a brain malformation that causes seizures and respiratory failure. http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/28/health/health-care-refugees-part-1/  Abby’s family is leaving Florida to get her proper health care. The Muszynskis’ older high school aged children will be left behind. Why are they doing this? Because Florida’s Medicaid program will not pay for Abby’s treatment. This dates […]

Data Breach: A Patients Rights Revolution

“…patients have to learn to diagnose themselves before they know which specialist to call.” The Problem On November 13, 2015, the Federal Bureau of Investigation notified 21st Oncology (based here in Ft. Myers) to that over two million patients’ confidential records and data in 21st Century’s possession and control had been collected and sold by […]