Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘medical’

Why object to HIPAA?

Why get annoyed at the federal medical privacy law (discussed in this space Mar. 16, Feb. 5, 2004, etc.)?

*Because it means your patients at the VA hospital often have no names on their doors? (MedRants, Mar. 31);

* Because it keeps you from talking about a patient’s condition when members of his extended family call to express concern? (Virginia A. Smith and Dawn Fallik, “Questions remain two years after medical privacy act”, Jewish World Review, Mar. 5);

* Because it brings out the worst in editorial writers at papers like the Philadelphia Inquirer? (Jeff Drummond’s HIPAA blog, Mar. 23).

And: MedRants has more (May 2).

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Oz: “Wrongful life case headed to High Court”

“A disabled woman who unsuccessfully sued her mother’s doctor for wrongful life has won the right to take her case to the High Court.” Alexia Harriton, 24, born with multiple handicaps, says a doctor was negligent for not diagnosing her mother’s rubella infection during pregnancy; had the infection been diagnosed, mom would have had an abortion. (AAP/News.com.au, Apr. 29). More on wrongful life/wrongful birth cases: Sept. 16, 2004 and links from there. Update May 27, 2006: court rules against wrongful life concept.

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Distinguished co-thinker of this site

From a report on an Apr. 5 Phoenix symposium on health care sponsored by Arizona State University: “[Former Sen. and vice presidential candidate John] Edwards, once a highly successful plaintiff’s personal-injury lawyer, also pointed to lawyers as a problem. They need to be held accountable for frivolous lawsuits that help drive up the cost of malpractice insurance.” (Jodie Snyder, “Ex-senator urging changes in U.S. health care system”, Arizona Republic, Apr. 6).

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“We’re having a midwife crisis”

Chambersburg, Pa., is losing its only independent certified nurse-midwife. Karen Brindle “had to close her practice because of liability issues with Keystone Women’s Care. The closing leaves more than 60 women due to deliver in the next few weeks scrambling to find someone to deliver their babies.” A new group calling itself “Mothers and Others for Midwifery-PA”, which will work to change the law, held a rally for Brindle. (Willa Jessee, “Over 100 people support midwife”, Carlisle Sentinel, Mar. 20). For more on midwives, see Mar. 15, 2004 and links from there, Aug. 1, and, on Point of Law, Mar. 6 of this year.

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They mixed those children up/And not a creature knew it

At North Suburban Medical Center outside Denver, nurses mistakenly gave the wrong newborn to a mother to breast feed. The mistake was discovered after a few minutes, the infant having declined the proffered refreshment, but the woman’s family is now suing and the other family is considering suing too. (“Mom Sues Hospital Claiming She Nursed Wrong Baby”, KMGH-TV, Mar. 16)(title allusion).

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HIPAA and small towns

What were once thought of as neighborly acts of kindness now pose too great a risk of medical privacy violations under federal law (Joe Ruff, “Communities Adjust To Medical Privacy Laws”, AP/ABC News, Mar. 12; via KevinMD). For more on the Health Insurance and Portability and Accountability Act, see Feb. 5, 2004 and links from there. More: the Michigan Medical Malpractice blogger says the hospitals are overreacting and a little gathering of permissions from patients/families should fix most of the problems (Mar. 17).

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