The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Minnesota on behalf of the families of two UnitedHealth private Medicare plan enrollees who died, accuses the company, which is based in Minnesota, of using an algorithm to “systematically deny” coverage of elderly patients’ rehabilitation care.

The link to the story from noted health insurance expert Wendell Potter, and meticulously researched and backed up, is

Here

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A hospice medical director was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay $18 million for his role in submitting more than $150 million in bogus Medicare claims on behalf of patients he falsely claimed were near death.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1726856?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-10-02&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=5?copied=1

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Here is a link to the reported appeals decision in my case.

These are difficult cases, trying for all involved. Press attention can help but can also add to the emotional impact on the parties.

The highly anticipated trial in Sarasota will center on the role of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in the separation of then-10-year-old Maya from her mother, Beata Kowalski, who, after nearly 90 days of being unable to see her daughter because of suspicions that she was making Maya’s condition worse, took her own life in January 2017. The Netflix documentary was released in June.

“Our trial strategy is simple,” the Kowalskis’ attorney Greg Anderson told Law360. “If the truth comes in and I am able to put my case in, I feel very confident that a jury will agree that Maya Kowalski was abused and that Johns Hopkins made an intentional decision to try to force the Kowalskis to agree with their misdiagnosis.”

But the hospital is expected to present evidence at trial that Maya, who arrived at the St. Petersburg hospital on Oct. 7, 2016, significantly underweight and in a wheelchair, did well under the hospital’s care and is living a normal life today. Johns Hopkins maintains that its doctors did their duty as mandatory reporters to report their suspicions of medical abuse to the Florida Department of Children and Families, and it was that agency and a judge who did the investigation and decided to temporarily remove Maya from her parents’ custody.

These thoughts from the Plaintiff’s lawyer ring true based upon my experience.

Anderson, the Kowalskis’ attorney, said he is confident about the facts and the law as it stands applied to the facts, although he says he is concerned about certain pretrial orders excluding evidence that could “cut down the case to something that has no resemblance to what actually happened.”

“If we’re allowed to get the facts in, if the jury’s allowed to hear what actually happened to these folks, I feel very confident,” he said.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1721301?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-09-14&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=3?copied=1

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Here’s the link

Physicians facing prison, fines, for cases involving fraud, prescription drugs, feds say

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Social inflation, nuclear verdicts (those which surpass $10 million or more), and other factors are driving up claims costs. Even if a judge or jury award doesn’t reach nuclear level, excess verdicts—those which are over a policy limit—can be a major burden for doctors and hospitals. Recent high claims costs have contributed to increases in liability insurance rates, and premiums are one of many factors making it unaffordable for doctors to operate solo practices.

Here’s the link

https://riskandinsurance.com/3-plaintiffs-attorney-tactics-driving-excess-medical-malpractice-verdicts-and-how-to-counter-them/

The post Quality Fraud: The Insurance Industry Gets It All Wrong appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

Two nursing school operators in the Fort Lauderdale area have fessed up to peddling fake diplomas to thousands of students who could then avoid completing a rigorous program before taking licensing exams in what prosecutors say was a multimillion-dollar racket stretching from South Florida to New York.

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article274207135.html#storylink=cpy

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The rejection of van Terheyden’s claim was typical for Cigna, one of the country’s largest insurers. The company has built a system that allows its doctors to instantly reject a claim on medical grounds without opening the patient file, leaving people with unexpected bills, according to corporate documents and interviews with former Cigna officials.

Here’s the link:

How Cigna Saves Millions by Having Its Doctors Reject Claims Without Reading Them

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Patients need to understand the risks and potential problems associated with telehealth visits to avoid additional injuries. Medical malpractice can become more of a danger than ever.

UNDERSTANDING TELEHEALTH AND THE RISKS OF MEDICAL MALPRACTICE

I had a case involving teleradiology services provided to an internal medicine practice from hundreds of miles away. The level of communication between the offices was almost non-existent. Informed consumers and educated clients are our goal here.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, June 5, 2019 Opioid Manufacturer Insys Therapeutics Agrees to Enter $225 Million Global Resolution of Criminal and Civil Investigations

The post Insys $250M Opioid Penalty for Quality Fraud appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019 raised the alarm while calling for urgent action to reduce patient harm in healthcare. The United Nations (UN) specialized agency stated that medical malpractice results in 2.6 million deaths annually.

“Most of these deaths are avoidable. The personal, social and economic impact of patient harm leads to losses of trillions of US dollars worldwide,” the body said in its statement.

Due to the growing rate of medical errors and malpractice, scientists at Johns Hopkins in 2016 proposed it should rank as the third leading cause of death in the U.S., a position only behind heart disease and cancer, respectively.

Back in 2016, I posted about the Institute of Medicine numbers already accumulated on this continuing problem. Here’s the link:

Metrics For A New ‘Patient-Centric’ Safety Movement

Here is the link to the more recent story about the WHO study release: https://www.digitaljournal.com/life/is-medical-malpractice-becoming-a-trend/article#ixzz7tCwxBoNY

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