United Health Is Using AI to Deny Insurance Claims

Insurance carriers have already begun using artificial intelligence to deny health insurance claims. A new lawsuit in Minnesota identifies United Health as using algorithms to deny the health insurance claims of elderly and disabled insureds, When claims are denied, necessary treatment is delayed – increasing the likelihood of serious injuries and death. The lawsuit, filed […]

Med Mal Presuit Rules Can Be A Trap

Many states, like Florida, have presuit rules for medical malpractice cases, passed at the urging of lobbies that represent insurance companies and hospital systems. These rules differ from state to state but generally make filing suit more difficult by setting up a series of procedures your lawyer has to follow. Unsurprisingly, almost every case involves […]

Discovery of Hospital Incident Reporting and Peer Review Privilege

I have had cases like the one below with both anonymous and signed reports removed from medical charts. In one case, a doctor met me in a restaurant across the street from the hospital and delivered to me his copy of a report that had been removed from the patient’s chart. I have also been […]

Sackler Immunity and the Purdue Pharma Settlement

SCOTUS court watchers were a little shocked that the Court blocked the Purdue Pharma / Sackler settlement – even if temporarily – and there is a lot of buzz about how they will answer this question: whether the Bankruptcy Code authorizes a court to approve, as part of a plan of reorganization under Chapter 11 […]

Physicians Assistants Are Not Doctors

You might assume that a physicians’ assistant is working under the close supervision of a physician. In my experience, you would be mistaken. The nurse practitioner will see you now. It’s not the phrase most people are accustomed to hearing, but it’s increasingly the case, with patients more likely than ever to see providers with […]

The Endless Courthouse Drama When Hospitals Are Determined To Hide Their Policies And Procedures

I posted recently about frivolous defenses and appeals raised by defendants, often because their insurance carriers have the resources to waste time and the incentive to hold on to the money that will eventually be paid to satisfy the claim. When we hear about frivolous claims, it is usually from insurance interests complaining that non-meritorious […]

Missouri Hospital Keeps Trial Win In Shaken Baby Case

Duty to warn cases are important but the proof can be tricky. At issue on appeal is a jury instruction stating that jurors were to find in favor of the hospital if they determined that Lane’s then-boyfriend, Ben Andrews, had abused Hollis. Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1688549?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-06-14&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=4?copied=1

AI In Medicine and Law

As lawyers look forward to patient safety advances that AI may make available in medicine, it is important to keep an eye on the dangers as they appear in our own profession. Levidow Levidow & Oberman PC and its attorney Steven Schwartz told a New York federal court that they are “truly mortified” over submitting […]

Hospital Trickle Down

Hospitals can fail their communities when they aren’t run properly. Mismanaged finances can result in poor quality care. Executives and board members of the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn have been accused of conspiring to divert hospital resources into their own pockets at the expense of patient care and community health in a proposed $500 […]

Falls In A Healthcare Setting Can Be Devastating

A three-judge Appeals Court panel reversed a Suffolk County judge’s dismissal of a suit alleging that nurse Orbelina Erazo, physical therapist Lauren O’Hara and their employer, Brigham & Women’s Faulkner Hospital, failed to properly assess the fall risks for patient Elizabeth Owens, which caused her to fall and fracture her hip following hip surgery. Read […]